Osun Begins Return Of Looted Properties To Owners
…as Agencies, Individuals, Laud Governor Oyetola on Loot Recovery
Following the recovery of some of the items carted away during the orgy of vandalisation and looting of private and public properties across the State, within the 72-hour amnesty period given by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, the government of the State of Osun has commenced the return of recovered properties to both individual and institutional owners.
It will be recalled that the State government, through its adhoc Loot Recovery Committee, had announced on Tuesday, that it had recovered a sizeable volume of the items carted away, while efforts were on to recover more.
The Secretary of the Adhoc Loot Recovery Committee, Mr Samson Awoyokun, speaking during the return of recovered properties to claimants, said the government has decided to immediately commence the return exercise in order to help devastated businesses and agencies revive their operations in good time.
Owoyokun, commenting on the methodology for dispatch, said: “From the time our Adhoc Committee was set up, we created a form with which we did an enumeration of the losses across the State.
“We asked victims of the looting to itemise their losses and provide sufficient evidence to validate their ownership of the properties. These things helped us in properly profiling the recovered items”, Owoyokun said.
Owoyokun added that the Committee was working with the Amotekun Corps, the State’s Joint Task Force and the Police Formation, to commence the house-to-house search for other looted properties yet to be recovered.
He continued: “We have intelligence report and video coverage of places where commercial items were hidden. We expected that the people behind all the looters to take advantage of the government’s call, but the amnesty offer is over now and we have commenced the search operations. The intelligence report will guide us and we will recover more looted properties.
“Security agencies are also on patrol across the state, especially the 14 local government areas that were adversely affected by the looting , to pick up items that were indiscriminately dumped off by roadsides”, Owoyokun added.
