Kidnappers have reportedly demanded for the sum of N30m as ransom for an abducted farmer, Olushola Ayanshola, in Itesiwaju Local Government Area of Oyo State.
According to The PUNCH, the victim was abducted while returning from his farm around Alaga Road, close to Radio Station, Otu town, on Sunday evening.
The two gun-wielding kidnappers, were said to have intercepted his motorcycle and shot sporadically into the air to scare motorists and passersby.
In an interview with journalists, the son of the victim, Olawale said that the kidnappers demanded the sum of N30M, while the father also pleaded that they find the money as he has been tied down at a location in the forest.
Olawale said, “The incident happened around 6pm on Sunday. My father visited his farm to supervise the labourers working on the farm and to settle them. After he was done at the farm located at Alaga, close to Radio Station, Otu town, he was returning home around 6pm when two armed kidnappers came out of the bush and ambushed him.
“We were told that my father left the motorcycle on the road and was making an attempt to run into the bush like other people at the scene of the attack when the kidnappers started shooting.
“Because my father was the target, they stopped him and whisked him away into the bush. Those that escaped said they were hiding in the bush when they heard gunshots and that it was when they no longer heard gunshots that they came out of hiding.”
The individuals who managed to flee the attack, according to Olawale, claimed that they had been expecting his father to also emerge from concealment but that when he was nowhere to be seen, they raised the alarm that he had been abducted.
He said the suspects had been emphatic about demanding N30m ransom before releasing his father, noting that they had left Ayanshola’s motorbike at the scene of the incident.
He added, “When I was informed about the attack, we started calling my father’s phone number but it was switched off. But on Monday morning, we got a call from a number which our father used in explaining that he was kidnapped and had been tied down in the bush.
“He said the kidnappers gave him a phone to contact us to raise the N30m ransom they demanded. He said it was N50m they initially demanded and that when he pleaded, they reduced it to N30m.
“When the kidnappers spoke with my elder brother, Emmanuel, he pleaded with them that the money was too much and they said we should provide it if we want our father alive.
“I also called the number that they used in contacting my elder brother and heard my father crying for help. He pleaded that we should not let the kidnappers kill him as they are making him suffer in the bush.”
He said, “As he was crying, I was also crying till the kidnappers collected the phone and hung up. When I tried speaking with one of the kidnappers, he did not understand Yoruba and English but Hausa.
“We reported the matter at the Otu Police Station; his motorcycle is also there. We have sold two cows to raise N500,000. The Amotekun Corps heard of the kidnap and its men have been combing the bush but could not find them.
“We were surprised when the kidnappers called to inform us that they are aware that hunters and the Amotekun operatives were on their trail and threatened to kill our father if we did not tell them to back down.
“My father, while pleading for help, also said the kidnappers are aware that the Amotekun officials and hunters are combing the bush and that their informant usually updates them as to when to go deeper inside the bush.”
