Suspected Kidnappers Kill Driver, Abduct 3 In Ibadan

A commercial driver was reportedly killed when suspected kidnappers shot at his Mazda 6 car, while three passengers were abducted, and four others sustained gunshot injuries along Ibadan-Ijebu Ode Road on Sunday.

The incident occurred at about 6:00 pm at Longe Village, not too far from Cocoa Research Institute of Nigerian (CRIN) at Idi Ayunre in Ibadan, Oyo State.

The kidnappers who had laid ambush, it was gathered, came out of their hiding and started shooting sporadically when they sighted an approaching vehicle.

The kidnappers’ shot hit an unregistered ash-coloured Toyota Corolla car, a Toyota Sienna with registration number Lagos KSF 387 YE and a Mazda 6 car with registration number Lagos AKD 08 JB — leading to the death of the Mazda car’s driver, gunshot injuries to two female and two other male passengers in the Sienna bus while three males occupants were abducted in the Toyota Corolla car.

The driver of the Mazda car, later identified as Abiodun Emmanuel Omotoye, and that of Sienna bus, were said to have made spirited efforts to escape from the kidnappers’ attack, causing the kidnappers to open fire on their vehicles.

The owner of the Toyota car, however, survived the attack as he came out of the car unscathed, though visibly shaken, a credible source who craved anonymity said.

The kidnappers, who must have assumed the occupants were dead, with the speed it swerved off the road into the bush and the distance it went, ignored the Mazda car and went with the two victims, the source said.

One of the female passengers in the Sienna vehicle was said to have sustained bullet injury in her chest region, while the other woman was shot in the arm.

A man in the bus also sustained gunshot in the arm, while the second man sustained injuries from the shattered glass of the vehicle.

The Sienna driver, who escaped the gunshots, reportedly drove them to the hospital inside CRIN, but it was learnt that the doctors there said that they could not handle the injuries, thereby referring them to another hospital.

It was learnt that the injured victims were eventually taken to a private hospital (name withheld) where they have been receiving medical attention.

Residents around the village alerted the police from the Idi Ayunre Police Division where operatives, led by the Divisional Police Officer, and those of Operation Burst visited the scene, from where they discovered the corps of the Mazda car driver strapped to his seat in the bush.

Bullet holes were found in the windscreen directly facing the driver, the door on the driver’s side and the one at his back.

After scanning the nearby bush, the police saw the Toyota Corolla car with bullet holes to its bonnet and no one inside. The vehicle was taken to the police station.

The abducted men, whose names were given simply as Gbenga, Segun and Emma, were said to have been coming from Olunde on their way to a yet-to-be-ascertained destination when they ran into the kidnappers.

The hoodlums have reportedly contacted the families of the abductees demanding N35 million as ransom.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Oyo State, Adewale Osifeso, when contacted said investigation was ongoing, saying that update would be provided on the incident.