By Paul Ezenwa<\/p>\n
For years, kidnapping, cult killings and organised crime cast a long shadow over Edo State, keeping families indoors and investors away.<\/p>\n
Today, that narrative is shifting as Governor Monday Okpebholo pushes a tougher, coordinated security drive built on joint operations, intelligence and swift justice.<\/p>\n
The latest proof came on Tuesday, September 29, when the Edo State Special Criminal Court sentenced four men to death for the June 14 kidnapping of a woman at a vegetable market on Airport Road, Benin City.<\/p>\n
Justice Aigbona Terry Momodu convicted Marvellous Isaac, Wisdom Michael, Rufus Emete Michael and Gift Raphael on kidnapping, conspiracy, armed robbery, cultism and illegal possession of firearms after seven prosecution witnesses and documentary evidence.<\/p>\n
The judgment showed Edo moving beyond arrests to conviction, a gap that once emboldened criminals to operate with impunity.<\/p>\n
That shift was deliberate, as Governor Okpebholo created a Special Criminal Court specifically to fast-track kidnapping and cultism cases and shorten arrest-to-judgment time.<\/p>\n
The judicial push is backed by operational pressure, with police, other security agencies and community structures carrying out weekly bush-combing to deny kidnappers forest safe havens.<\/p>\n
In August alone, Edo Police arrested 13 suspected kidnappers, rescued nine victims and made other arrests linked to cultism and violent crime.<\/p>\n
In September, a distress call triggered a coordinated operation in Illeh forest, Esan West, where three victims were rescued and three suspects arrested, underscoring an intelligence-led approach.<\/p>\n
For Okpebholo, security is not an end in itself but the foundation for roads, agriculture, power and investment, linking safety directly to livelihoods.<\/p>\n
That link is already paying off, with Skyewise Group’s N9 billion Benin City investment, a proposed 100MW Ologbo power project and a $100 million Presco expansion citing improved governance and security, as Deputy Governor Dennis Idahosa said reforms are creating safer ground for business and farming.<\/p>\n
The fight is not over and criminal networks remain active, but Edo is clearly moving from fear to confidence, where families move freely and investors can plan long-term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Paul Ezenwa For years, kidnapping, cult killings and organised crime cast a long shadow over Edo State, keeping families indoors and investors away. Today, that narrative is shifting as Governor Monday Okpebholo pushes a tougher, coordinated security drive built on joint operations, intelligence and swift justice. The latest proof came on Tuesday, September 29, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18101,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18100\/revisions\/18101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}