A 60-year-old farmer, Kayode Ajayi, who was kidnapped last Monday on his farm in the Laluba area in Asa LGA of Kwara State, has been freed.
The police spokesman in the state, Ajayi Okasanmi, who confirmed the development to City & Crime on Sunday, said, “The farmer has been freed after the kidnappers let go of his daughter initially. The kidnappers succumbed to the pressure from operatives. But no arrest has been made, we are still on their trail.”
However, a relative and neighbour of the victim, who craved anonymity, told newsmen that Ajayi was freed on Thursday evening after the payment of N2m ransom.
He explained that, “During our telephone discussion with him, he said the abductors initially demanded the sum of N7m or that he would be killed.
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“But while we were still telling him to plead with them to reduce the ransom, one of the abductors hijacked the phone from him and said the family should go and raise the money or else he would be killed.
“At the end of the day, they later agreed to take N2m before he was subsequently released to the family around 10pm on Thursday in a bush located in Amoyo village in Ifelodun LGA.”
He added that Ajayi was receiving attention in a private hospital in Ilorin due to the trauma he passed through.
