Ogun State is fast becoming the epicentre of kidnapping in the Southwest. In this report, our correspondent captures recent cases coming at a time the Amotekun corps, a local security outfit, was inaugurated in the state.
It was market day at Ilara in Imeko-Afon Local Government Area of Ogun State and as usual, traders travelled to buy and sell at the market.
At the close of trade that day, a group of nine travellers boarded a car to return home. At around 8 pm, their vehicle was stopped by gunmen at Olubo village. Four of them were abducted. Five of them were lucky to escape.
But that kidnapping, the latest in a series of many, riled up the villagers who had had enough. They poured out onto the street to protest the kidnappings.
They barricaded the road and chased away policemen attached to a border patrol team stationed at a checkpoint close to the scene of the abductions.
The protest disrupted vehicular movement, while many travellers were stranded on the road. But the residents have had enough.
For about four months on the trot, residents and travellers in Ogun State have been at the mercy of kidnappers.
In this period, reports of residents being kidnapped for ransom are all too common in the news.
Daily Trust’s findings showed that not less than 20 cases were reported between March and May, while numerous others slipped beneath reporters’ radar.
Most of the victims have been medical workers, community leaders, expatriates, students, motorists, travellers, and petty traders.
The kidnappers have continued to fleece their victims for money, forcing relatives and loved ones to sell precious belongings to save the lives of their kidnapped relatives.
Even when it is clear the victims or their relatives have nothing to offer, the kidnappers would take peanuts rather than nothing. A Beninoise, abducted in Imeko/Afon LGA, was freed after a reported N30,000 ransom payment.
Analysis has shown that the Abeokuta-Imala-Ilara-Ayetoro Road linking three LGAs-Abeokuta North, Yewa North and Imeko/Afon–has become a hotbed for kidnapping.
On March 14, two female students of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ayetoro campus in Yewa-North Local Government Area were kidnapped at night.
Five days later, Adeyemo Precious and Oyefule Abiola, of the departments of Forestry as well as Wildlife Management and Agricultural Economics respectively, were freed after a ransom of N1.7m was paid by their families.
Weeks later, Oladunni Odetola, a medical doctor, and a nurse identified as Mrs Bamgbose, were kidnapped at Olubo village along Abeokuta – Imeko Road in Imeko.
Health workers in the state organized a fundraiser to come up with the N20million ransom demanded their release. After six days, an undisclosed amount was paid and the duo was freed.
The kidnap also came less than a week after a businesswoman, Roselyn Edusi and her guest were kidnapped at Omu, Ofada in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area.
However, it was the abduction of the travelling traders that tipped the residents over and caused them to protest.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, Ogun State Police Command, Bolanle Muritala, turned up at the protest in a police helicopter to appeal to the residents to remove the barricade.
He assured that the police were already on the trail of the kidnappers.
The residents’ distrust of the authorities has a history. Gunmen in army camouflage had once attacked Obada-Oko in Ewekoro Local Government and abducted a 13-year-old boy.
The gunmen had ambushed the boy’s family as they were returning to their Destiny Estate home in Obada-Oko from a church programme. They seized the boy as he alighted from the vehicle to open the gate for the family car to drive in. His mother and grandmother were beaten by the gunmen.
After about four days and a reported payment of about N2.5m, the boy was freed.
There have been other abductions too. Like the Chinese nationals taken in Obafemi-Owode Local Government, three travellers taken along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, travellers, a community leader in the state, Chief Tajudeen Omotayo as well as a Dental therapist in Ijebu North LG.
To protest the kidnappings of their members, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) in April, announced an indefinite strike.
They accused the government of not being committed to securing the release of some abducted health workers.
“The government’s approach of not negotiating with the kidnappers has led us to believe our lives and security is of no essence to this government,” the union said.
The strike lasted one week before it was called off.
Recently, operatives of the Ogun Police Command arrested and paraded suspected kidnappers of two female students of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ayetoro campus and a community leader, Chief Tajudeen Omotayo.
The suspects, according to Police Commissioner Edward Ajogun, confessed to the kidnapping of the doctor and a nurse on the Abeokuta-Imeko Road.
The suspects, Umaru Usman, Mohammed Bello, and Babuga Abubakar, 40, reportedly confessed to a series of kidnappings in Ayetoro, Olorunda and Imeko areas, among others.
“One Babuga Abubakar, who is their informant, confessed that he supplied information on victims to the gang for easy operation,” Commissioner Ajogun said. “He also confessed that the two female students were not the actual targets, but a woman who is a wholesale recharge card dealer in the area.”
The police also paraded two suspected kidnappers of the community leader in Imope, who was abducted on March 20, 2021, on his way from a meeting in Ijebu-Ode.
Ajogun said, “We have sustained the combing of the bushes and that is paying off. We have increased our visibility, the helicopter is still going to stay with us, we have pleaded with the governor to continue to allow us to use it. We know how much it is causing the government in maintaining it.”
When the Amotekun corps was inaugurated on April 1, it was meant to help combat the overwhelming insecurity challenge in the state.
However, findings by our correspondent showed that the corps is still finding its feet.
There has been a complete lack of Amotekun presence in the state’s capital and some local government areas.
However, an insider told our correspondent that operatives of the outfit were deployed to some ‘troubled’ LGs where kidnapping and other incidences of crimes are rampant like Imeko-Afon, Yewa North, Ijebu-North, among others.
Aside from the kidnappings, a farmers/herders crisis rocked the Yewa axis in February, killing many. Many residents of Yewaland were also displaced with some crossing the border to the Benin Republic.
The Commander of the Corps, Dave Akinremi said, “The corps has not started working in the entire state. We have done training for personnel in some local government areas which we considered volatile at the time we started our operations.
“The local government areas included Yewa North, Ipokia, Imeko-Afon in the Ogun West Senatorial district; Ijebu-Ode, Sagamu and Ijebu-North in the Eastern Senatorial District.
“The main thrust of our corps is to gather intelligence and we were partnering with traditional rulers and other stakeholders to sensitise them on the need for them to give us credible information.”
However, the State chapter of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) had declared war on kidnappers, bandits and other criminal elements in the State.
The group in a statement signed by the State Coordinator, Adesina Jimoh, alleged that criminal Fulani herdsmen are behind the recent kidnapping incidents and banditry attacks in some parts of the state and vowed “to vehemently resist” them.
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