Armed groups storm Ife-Ibadan highway, kidnap travelers

By Ayo Ojo
Scores of people travelling on the popular Ife-Ibadan highway in the heart of Yorubaland were at the weekend seized by heavily armed kidnappers. Those who escaped said the pattern of the kidnappers’ operations, the spoken language and their physique suggested they were Fulani herdsmen.
Irohinoodua gathered that several vehicles plying the route were lined up and passengers forced to disembark. They were later led into the thick nearby forests with some of them wearing military uniforms. Some of the passengers, however, managed the escaped the attacks.
Our correspondent heard from an eye witness that among the kidnapped were little children and at least a pregnant woman whose other little children between the ages of 13 and 16 were wailing as the armed groups dragged them into the forest.
“I escaped the assault because our vehicle was on the other lane. As soon as we noticed what was happening, we abandoned the car and ran into the bush. The herdsmen shot at us. One of my colleagues was wounded but the herdsmen were busy on their captives, so we managed to escape”, an escapee Local Government official from Ibadan who was on his way to Ile-Ife told our correspondent.
He said now fewer than 15 people may have been kidnapped by the armed herdsmen. In a related development, Professor Olayinka Adegbehingbe a University lecturer was said to have on Sunday been kidnapped by armed groups at Ikire, also on the Ife-Ibadan expressway.
Adegbenro Adebanjo, a journalist and former Associate Editor/Head of Newsroom of Tell Magazine whose wife and two children escaped the abductors stated he received a distress call from his wife and children soon after they ran into the armed groups.
Hear him: “I got a call from my son. Daddy , daddy , marauders suspected to be herdsmen attacked the vehicle my mummy and my brother were traveling in. The caller, who is my first son, explained.”
He said that at about 6:45pm on the Ilesha-Ife-Ibadan Expressway a trailer loaded with some men suddenly blocked the road around Ikoyi town and some men jumped out and started shooting sporadically.
He said further “Mayhem ensued as vehicles rammed into one another while occupants exited through windows and other openings in desperate dash for safety in the bush. The marauders who spoke in Hausa unleashed mayhem on the hapless travellers demanding for money and other valuables. They pursued those who fled deep into the bush beating and harassing them in the process while shooting continuously to show that they meant business.”
Sources close to the police told Irohinoodua that distress calls were received by the Osun and Oyo State Police commands and that policemen were dispatched to the scene. The source who does not wish to be named said the policemen engaged the herdsmen in a gun duel and that some of them were shot.

Despite all the support

Like Play like Play, Highway kidnap of motorists seems to b d new trend and yet d security agencies seem to b letting it escalate by aiding dis criminals get their payments