Gunmen kidnap four, demand N20m ransom in Ekiti

Armed kidnappers have allegedly abducted four persons in Ekiti State and requested N20 million ransom for their release.

As reported by newsmen in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday, July 8, Gunmen abducted four persons on Oke Ako-Irele Road in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State on Wednesday, July 6, and demanded N20 million ransom.

Sources in Ado Ekiti said the incident occurred at about 7.30 pm and those abducted were said to be occupants of a commercial vehicle and a mini-truck traveling on the road that leads to the border.

The victims were said to have been ambushed at a pothole-ridden portion of the road that links to Ekiti and the Kogi border.

According to the sources, the driver, who is from Ipao Ekiti, and a passenger were abducted in the commercial vehicle, while the driver and his assistant were taken away in the mini-truck, which was said to be conveying charcoal.

A source narrated;

“We were in a meeting at about 8pm on Wednesday when we got information that there were two vehicles with doors opened and the headlights on the road, but that there was nobody in the vehicles,” 

“On getting there, we saw a commercial vehicle and a mini-truck. But before we got there, the occupants of the two vehicles had been abducted by the kidnappers. The abductors had been calling since Wednesday night requesting N20 million as a ransom for the victims.

“In the course of the phone call from the den, we got to know the victims are four and that the passenger boarded the commercial vehicle at Irele Ekiti and headed to Ayedun Ekiti.

“The commercial car driver said he did not know where they were in the bush but that all he knew was that they were near a river as they could hear sounds of a flowing river. However, men of the Police Rapid Response Squad, Amotekun Corps and local hunters have been combing the bush to rescue them. it is our prayer that they get them hale and hearty”.

Another source said, “The abductors have been calling since Wednesday night requesting N20m as ransom. However, the police, Ametekun Corps and hunters have been combing the bush to rescue them. It is our prayer that they get them hale and hearty.”

Another source said that the communities in Ekamefa, comprising Irele, Ijowa, Oke Ako, Ipao, Itapaji and Iyemero were living in fear of the kidnappers, who he noted had surrounded the area.

Speaking with journalists, the spokesman for the Ekamefa community in Ekiti, Oluwafemi Abayomi, said, “Insecurity is a big problem in our area. Our people are not safe, nobody can go to the farm again without being kidnapped.”

He, therefore, called for the intervention of the state and federal governments.