Kidnappers struck again on the Ibadan-Ijebu Ode Road on Sunday evening, killing a driver following sporadic shooting, while three occupants of a car were abducted and four passengers sustained gunshot injuries.

The incident occurred at about 6:00 p.m. at Longe village, not too far from Cocoa Research Institute of Nigerian (CRIN) at Idi Ayunre in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Information gathered by the Nigerian Tribune had it that the kidnappers, who had laid ambush, came out and started shooting sporadically when they sighted an approaching vehicle.

The kidnappers’ shot hit an unregistered ash-coloured Toyota Corolla car, a Toyota Sienna with registration number Lagos KSF 387 YE and a Mazda 6 car with registration number Lagos AKD 08 JB – leading to the death of the Mazda car’s driver, gunshot injuries to two female and two male occupants in the Sienna bus and abduction of three males in the Toyota Corolla car.

The driver of the Mazda car, later identified as Abiodun Emmanuel Omotoye, and that of Sienna bus, were said to have made spirited efforts to escape from the kidnappers’ attack, causing their being shot at.

The owner of the Mazda car, however, survived the attack as he came out of the car unscathed, though visibly shaken, a credible source who craved anonymity told the Nigerian Tribune.

The kidnappers, who must have assumed the occupants were dead, with the speed it swerved off the road into the bush and the distance it went, ignored the Mazda car and went with the two victims, it was said.

One of the female passengers in the Sienna vehicle was said to have sustained bullet injury in her chest region, while the other woman was shot in the arm.

A man in the bus also sustained gunshot in the arm, while the second man sustained injuries from the shattered glass of the vehicle.

The Sienna driver, who escaped the gunshots, reportedly drove them to the hospital inside CRIN, but it was learnt that the doctors there said that they could not handle the injuries, thereby referring them to another hospital.

It was learnt that the injured victims were eventually taken to a private hospital (name withheld) where they have been receiving medical attention.

Much later, when the shootings were no longer heard and the atmosphere had regained calmness, residents around the village alerted the police.

The alert brought police operatives from Idi Ayunre Division, led by the divisional police officer, and those of Operation Burst to the scene, from where they discovered the dead body of the Mazda car driver strapped to his seat in the bush.

Bullet holes were found in the windscreen directly facing the driver, the door on the driver’s side and the one at his back.

Though initially, blood was not seen around the car, when the car was brought out from the bush and the body of the killed driver retrieved, it started gushing from his side where bullets hit him.

After scanning the nearby bush, the police saw the Toyota Corolla car with bullet holes in its bonnet and no one inside. The vehicle was taken to the police station.

The abducted men, whose names were given simply as Gbenga, Segun and Emma, were said to have been coming from Olunde on their way to a yet-to-be-ascertained destination when they ran into the kidnappers.

It was learnt that the families of the victims had been contacted, with a demand for N35 million as ransom.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Oyo State, Adewale Osifeso, said investigation is ongoing while update will be provided accordingly. (Nigerian Tribune)

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