Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state said only governors, their deputies and VIPs are free from the menace of kidnappers on the highways as he hoped it would become a thing of the past soonest.

He spoke on Sunday evening during the maiden participatory Radio/Television programme tagged” an evening with Mr Governor’ in Akure, the state capital.

Akeredolu lamented that Akure/Ibadan road is now notorious den of kidnappers. He revealed that his convoy ran into suspected kidnappers on the same road recently. The kidnappers ran into the bush when his security men opened fire, he said.

Akeredolu noted that only those with security men in their convoys such as governors and deputies are now sure of safety on the nation’s roads.

On the increase in Internal Generated Revenue(IGR), Akeredolu said government has not placed undue burden on the people of Ondo state. Government has not increased tax, he emphasised.

” The only difference is that we have trained personnel who have ensured accountability and proper collection of these funds in all local governments across the state”.

“When we came on board, Ondo state generated N700M as IGR and with this, it could not get us to anywhere and that is why we have to put all hands on deck to generate N1.5B for this year and we are still working hard on how to generate it”.