After spending three days at kidnappers’ den, Mr. Bamipe Ojediran has lamented the continuous operation of a dire devil kidnapping gang along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
Ojediran, who was one of the latest victims of kidnapping along the Ogun State section of the expressway, called on the authorities for immediate intervention by strengthening security on the axis.
He was abducted along with his wife, Bola and son, Jedidiah on November 12, at about 5:40p.m. The Guardian gathered that kidnappers on the same day, also abducted one Ojo Dauda and Matthew Akangbe in a Nissan Coastal bus with REG No. Lagos LND 395 YC.
Narrating his ordeal, yesterday, Ojediran who is recuperating from the assault, said they left Ibadan to Lagos on that fateful day at 4:30p.m., adding that after seven minutes drive from Foursquare Camp, they saw vehicles turning back and also attempted to turn back.
He said: “While turning back, a vehicle coming from Ibadan rammed into my car, a black Toyota Camry Muzzle with REG No. Lagos LSD 937 GC by the side and made it immovable. We attempted to run but the kidnappers caught up with us. They left my two younger sons on the expressway, took my wife, my first son and I into the bush. “I have my three sons sitting at the back of the car, after the incident, my wife was the first to come down, the eldest son came down. I brought him out but the remaining two had literally passed out. So, I stood there to resuscitate them, the youngest, a two-year-old, was already bleeding.
“Eventually, they came back to life and I brought them out of the car. By that time, the kidnappers had run to my side and stood by me, they marched me with the two youngest sons into the bush. I was carrying the two-year-old who was bleeding and holding the nine-year-old, after walking in the bush, they realised that the children were slowing me down; they said I should drop them. But, I insisted I wasn’t going to drop them, they took me back to the road, to drop them on the road, and I thought that it was better to drop them on the road.”
Ojediran added: “They took me back into the bush, I was still celebrating that my family was safe. Only to know that the kidnappers were running after them also, they eventually caught up with them.
“My wife said when it was a close distance, they cocked their guns and they attempted to shoot. At that point, she stood and they eventually brought my wife and my first son back into the bush where we were. We also met two people in the bush. They were drivers of a vehicle that had earlier conveyed some people to Foursquare Camp and the passengers alighted and were going back to Lagos, so it was just two people in the bus when they were kidnapped.”
He said his wife had a fracture, while he sustained bruises from the incident. According to him, the kidnappers beat the other two people as well, and asked for ransom by liaising with their families.
On how his children escaped, he explained that: “After I had gained freedom on Tuesday after paying ransom, I asked my children, how they got home, they said when I dropped them, they just slept off. When the elder one woke up, he was still trying to understand what was happening but he knew something terrible had happened.”
Ojediran said the seven-member kidnappers’ gang threatened to kill them if they did not get ransom.
He said: “It was an experience that one will not pray for his or her enemies. It was by grace that we all survived even though ransom was paid. They put us under a tree for three days that was about 100 metres from the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. There was no police presence at all throughout the time.” He explained that it was days after their release, that he got to know that kidnaping along the axis happens almost every Sunday.
When contacted yesterday, spokesperson for Ogun State Police Command, Superintendent of Police, Omolola Odutola, confirmed the incident. She said kidnappers, who emerged from the nearby bush, fired sporadically, took the victims and held them hostage at Bamboo Pindown inward Lagos on their way from Ibadan.
However, Odutola said the victims were released on Tuesday, November 14, and have been reunited with their respective families.
