Horror of kidnapping along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is back as road users are, once again, travel in fears.
Traders, drivers as well as passengers now express fear about their fate as the daredevil men of the underworld take over the jungle linking other parts of the country to the commercial capital, Lagos.
The evil marauders besiege the jungles in large number and in different cartels, armed with dangerous weapons, intercepting vehicles – be it private or commercial – killing innocent passengers, maiming and extorting ransom from them and their family members.
Sometimes, after making outrageous demands from family members who gather little resources to meet up with the ransom, the criminal elements still kill or maim their hostages. Only the lucky ones live to tell their stories.
One of those who return to their loved ones to relay their experiences is Bamipe Ojediran. For him, the continuous operation of a daredevil kidnapping gang along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway fetched him a gruesome experience lately.
He was allegedly abducted along the Ogun State section of the expressway alongside his wife, Bola; and son, Jedidiah on November 12, at about 5:40pm.
The Ojediran family was not the only set of people who had a misfortune with the messengers of death on the faithful day. A man, named Ojo Dauda and Matthew Akangbe were seized in a Nissan Coastal bus with REG Number Lagos LND 395 YC.
According to Ojediran, he left Ibadan for Lagos on the fateful day at 4:30pm. After about 7-minute drive from Foursquare Camp, they saw some vehicles turning back. Immediately, he also attempted to turn back when he had an accident.
He recalled that “While turning back, a vehicle coming from Ibadan rammed into my car, a black Toyota Camry Muscle with Registration Number 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.
“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.”
The man explained that 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 family members.
“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.
“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.
He said that kidnaping happens mostly along the axis on Sunday.
When contacted yesterday, Police Public Relations Officer, Ogun State Command, Omolola Odutola (SP), confirmed the incident, saying, the 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
Odutola said the victims were released on Tuesday, November 14, and had since been reunited with their respective families.
The kidnap case of an official of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps, Popoola Olasupo, in April, 2022, was celebrated by the media. Olasupo was abducted at the Fidiwo axis along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway around 6:30am on Sunday while heading to his duty post.
Eyewitnesses said the attackers suddenly emerged from the bush and opened fire on a commercial bus in which the TRACE officer was traveling. Olasupo was said to have been the only passenger who was kidnapped on the fateful day.
The incident happened few weeks after a journalist named Oduneye Olusegun, was abducted at the Ijebu-Ode area of the state with the kidnappers demanding the N30 million ransom from his family members.
The journalist was rescued after police officers traced his car to Idimu in Lagos a couple of days after his abduction.
The police were said to have engaged his abductors in a 45-minute gun battle, leading to Olusegun’s freedom and the arrest of one of the suspects.
As the latest development along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway create worries in the minds of members of the public, security agencies, as well as the Federal Government, were urged to be proactive in nipping the crime in the bud on time before it degenerates.
Newspot reporting with street journal.
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