VAM News Update

_Four regain freedom

ONE person lost his life in the captivity of unknown gunmen on Sunday after an alleged payment of N7 million ransom.

The dead victim was among the four other persons abducted on their way from Aworo Village near Agbamu in Kwara State back to Oyan, Osun state by unknown gunmen.

It was reported that one Grace Adepoju, said to be the Iyalode of Oyan in Osun State, her surveyor and four others went to Agbamu for commercial transaction and while returning around 6.30 pm when they were attacked and kidnapped at Aworo, a community at the Osun and Kwara states border.

While Adepoju escaped from the abductors in the early hours of Tuesday, others remained in the kidnappers’ den while local hunters, operatives of Amotekun Corps and policemen made efforts to free them.

During the search, two persons suspected to be informants to the kidnappers, who were found making calls inside the bush were arrested and taken into custody by the police team from Kwara State.

A source close to one of the victims, who spoke on condition of anonymity, however, said four of the victims, were released in a community in Kwara State on Sunday after payment of N7m.

“One of the victims died in the den of the abductors. Four others were released in a bush in a community in Kwara State, in the early hours of Sunday after the abductors collected N7m ransom.”

The spokesperson for the Osun State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Kehinde Adeleke, declined comment on the payment of ransom but confirmed the release of four abductees and the death of one.

“Four of the victims were released while one died in the den of the kidnappers. Three suspects were also arrested in connection with the incident,” she said.