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Kidnappers have demanded N30 million ransom payment for two women abducted in the early hours of Sunday in Igbaja, Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara.
Three women were said to have been abducted in the community by some gunmen suspected to be itinerant herdsmen on Sunday.
However, one of the women was reported to have escaped leaving two women who were believed to have been taken to the forest around Igbaja, Oke-Ode in the local government area.
The Chairman of Ifelodun LG, Femi Yusuf, told PUNCH Metro in an interview on Thursday that the kidnappers had got in touch with the families of the two women demanding payment of N30 million before they could be set free.
Yusuf, who said that efforts were being made to comb the forest to locate the women and their abductors said that both the state and the local government are making efforts to free the two people.
He said, “The information I received from the families of the victims is that the kidnappers are demanding payment of N30 million before they could be released.
“Right now, soldiers, police, and the local vigilante in the local government are in the forest searching for the two people and probably the kidnappers.”
Yusuf, while lamenting the death of the Jagun of Igbaja land, Chief Lukman Balogun, who led the team of local vigilantes who were in the forest in the area in search of the kidnapped victims, said that the death of the vigilante commander had dealt a great blow on the community.
“We are still mourning the late Jagun who is my uncle in Igbaja, we will do all within our power in conjunction with the state government and security agencies in the state to smoke out the kidnappers who have been terrorizing our people.”
The Kwara State Police Command confirmed the abduction of three women from the community on Sunday and the killing of Balogun on Monday evening.
The police explained that the killing of the chief led to the protest by the youth.
The Command’s Public Relations Officer, Ejire-Adeyemi Toun, who confirmed the abduction to PUNCH Metro on Tuesday, said the youth blocked the roads in Igbaja over Balogun’s death.
The PPRO said, “One Mohamadu reported at Igbaja Police station that three women were kidnapped in the community on Sunday, September 29, 2024. There was a report that the vigilante went on a rescue operation and a prominent chief of the town was killed during the exchange of fire between the kidnappers and the vigilante. One of the abducted women was said to have escaped the remaining two victims that were yet to be rescued
“The youth however grouped and blocked the road that no vehicle should pass through the town because they said that the chief was a good man to them when he was alive.”
Ejire-Adeyemi said that the youth had been calmed and normalcy had returned to the area.
She said that security men including the police, soldiers, and Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps have been mobilized to comb the forest to rescue the remaining victims and arrest the kidnappers.
