Gunmen Abduct Eight People In Ekiti, Demand ₦50 Million Ransom

Eight people were allegedly kidnapped on Tuesday at Itapaji Ekiti, in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State.

This is coming a week after four persons were kidnapped in Ayebode-Ekiti, in the same local government.

The kidnappers were said to have demanded N50 million ransom from the family of the victims on Wednesday, 27th of October

According to an eyewitness, it was revealed that the gunmen had stormed a house located in the town around 9:30pm, shot intermittently into the air, and made away with eight occupants of the building

During the occurrence that lasted over an hour, the community was said to have been in the fear of the unknown.
It was gathered that the terrible incident happened at the time the owner of the building was preparing for his mother’s burial.

According to the source, the gunmen numbered seven, came around 9:30pm, surrounded the building, shot into the air, and made the people in the community to scamper for safety.

“Occupants who were 14 were forcefully made to lie down as they came out of the house and were later taken away into the bush, but six of them escaped.”

“One of the family members got a call from the abductors and demanded for a ransom of N50m”, the eyewitness said

The source lamented on how the lack of police stations in Itapaji -Ayebode and Irele-Oke Ako axes was responsible for increasing rates of kidnapping in the area, saying that the nearest police station is in Ikole Ekiti, which was over 40 minutes drive to the troubled spots.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, Sunday Abutu, confirmed the incident.

Abutu said: “The Command is working on that . Already a special police operatives, as well as the JTF, have been deployed in that axis to ensure they rescue the victims and for possible arrest of the culprits”.