SIX kidnapped college students have described how the Ondo State Security unit, code-named Amotekun, freed them at Ikaramu in the Akoko North West Local Council of the state.
They were abducted and held captive for four days in a dense forest before being freed by Amotekun personnel.
The victims—three men and three women—were being transported from Lagos to Abuja when they were kidnapped by eight attackers.
Our experience
One of the victims, Gbenga Sunday, stated that the driver of the commercial vehicle they boarded was a member of the kidnappers while recounting their ordeal to journalists.
“When we arrived somewhere in Akoko, we were unsure of the driver’s direction because he was acting as though he had lost his way.
“We spent several hours moving around. We discovered that we had entirely left the road when we looked at our Google map.
Eight armed and masked men emerged from the jungle and blocked the road just as we were attempting to turn around. The motorist began heading back in our direction before we realized what was happening. Six of us were led into the jungle after being pulled out by the hands.
Our exploration of the area lasted more than 30 minutes. In the dense jungle, we continued to move from one position to another.
We were fed roasted yam and cassava for the duration of the four days, along with red oil and salt.
We had no choice but to eat the food that was provided to us in order to refuel for the arduous trek into the dense jungle.
“The men appear to have extensive local knowledge. They threatened to shoot us if we tried to flee. We opted to keep things quiet with them because of this.
“We arrived at a site where people were moving by and making no comments, but later that day, members of the Amotekun Corps and local vigilantes arrived, overpowered the kidnappers, and freed us from them.
—Amotekun — How we rescued them
Adetunji Adeleye, the state commander of Amotekun, explained how the victims were saved by saying: “We got a call that certain persons have been captured. We discovered their location, which indicated that they were nearby Akoko. We put pressure on them for almost two days while we were there. In order to find them, we conducted extensive tracking.
“I want to encourage people to speak up when they see anything because that will make it easier for us to get the results we need.”
In the meantime, state security forces have started a coordinated show-of-force patrol in the Akure and Owo regions of the state.
The Police, Army, Amotekun, NSCDC, DSS, and Defence Intelligence Agency, DIA organized the joint patrol to support the state’s ongoing Operation “Gba le Gba’ko.”
It was discovered that the exercise is a component of inter-agencies’ commitment to ensuring that the state is free of crime and a component of efforts to warn individuals with criminal intent to stay away from Ondo.
