Ado Ekiti — Gunmen stormed Erinmope- Ekiti, in Moba Local Government Areas of Ekiti State and seized five women. The abductors are demanding a ransom of N100 million from the family.
Narrating their ordeals to THISDAY, the head of the family , Muhammad Saliu Okanlawon( alias Elebenla) said gunmen stormed their residence in Erinmope- Ekiti last Saturday evening and abducted five members of his household .
The 60-year-old man, who also a cattle dealer, said those abducted were wives and children of his younger brother and son. He gave their identities as Kehinde Mahmud, Adijat Hussein, Hawawu Suleiman, Fatima and another Fatima.
The incident, according to him, occurred last Saturday around 7.00p.m.
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"These hoodlums came to our house and they were shooting sporadically. The male members of the households were in the mosque and they couldn't suspect anything untoward. It was after they carried out their evil act that we discovered that five female members of the household were missing.
"We alerted the security agents immediately, and I must commend them for their swift response. The combined team of Police, Civil Defence, Amotekun and others trailed the assailants but could not track them. The Area Commander also showed up but we learnt they (kidnappers) did not follow their usual exit route in Osin in Kwara. We learnt they must have mingled with the people of the community, to conceal their identities.
"I learnt they only called once to demand N100 million ransom and since then, nothing has been heard from them again. We are using this medium to appeal to the government to come to our rescue. We don't even know what to do again. One of the victims is carrying a nine- month old pregnancy, you can imagine the kind of trauma she will be going through now. It is indeed a painful experience for the family.
This was a strange incident because we have never experienced such in this community. We have lived here for more than 70 years in this community even though we are from Kwara State. We don't know any other place besides Erinmope."
He explained that all the abductees were female including a pregnant woman and nursing mother.
Mahmud therefore appealed to the authorities of the state and local government to come to the aid of the family in order to secure their freedom. He lamented that there was nowhere the family could raise such a humongous money for ransom.
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