No fewer than 18 passengers have been kidnapped by gunmen in an 18-seater bus along the Ikare-Irun Akoko-Ado Ekiti highway in Ondo State.
The passengers were returning from a party held at a community in Ekiti State and were traveling back to Lkare, in Ondo State, on Saturday.
According to reports, some of the victims were caterers who had gone to cook at a party.
Chief Adetunji Adeleye, commander of the state’s security force known as Amotekun, acknowledged the abduction and attack by the gunmen.
Adeleye, on the other hand, told reporters that his troops had successfully rescued some of the kidnapped passengers.
According to him, “My men and soldiers from Ekiti are combing the forest.
“The hoodlums did not kidnap the 18 passengers in the bus.“ Some of the passengers escaped themselves, while our men and soldiers rescued some of the victims in the night. Our men are combing the forest as we speak.”
According to reports, the attack occurred on Saturday around 6 p.m. The victims, according to an eyewitness account, are from the Irun Akoko, Ikare Akoko, and Ekiti communities.
The source also stated that a young boy escaped from the kidnappers while his mother and her staff were not lucky, and they were wised into the forest by their abductors.
Narrating her ordeal, one of the victims who escaped, Toyin Ogunyemi, said the gunmen had not contacted the families of the victims for ransom to secure their freedom.
Another source stated that military personnel, along with the Amotekun Corps from Ekiti and Ondo states, are undertaking searches in the forests in coordination with local vigilantes to ensure the victims’ safe release.
I contacted Funmi Odunlami, spokeswoman for the state police command, who confirmed the passengers’ abduction.
Odunlami said that “four people came to the station and reported that while on their way from Ado Ekiti to Ikare at Oyinmo camp, on the Irun-Ado Ekiti road, they were attacked by unknown gunmen, but they escaped through the bush.
She said that the police search team had been deployed to the area and assured that the victims would be rescued unhurt soon.
