Ayodele Adetayo Ajayi, the recently-retired provost of the Federal College of Education (FCE), Osile, Abeokuta, Ogun State, was kidnapped on Tuesday by unidentified gunmen.
According to reports, Ajayi was kidnapped on Tuesday at 7:17 p.m. in Ikija village on the Olodo axis of the Abeokuta-Ibadan road in the Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, along with his wife and driver.
Further information revealed that the kidnappers, who are still holding Ajayi and his driver captive, eventually freed his wife.
Ajayi and other drivers on the route were attacked by the attackers, according to a nearby resident.
He claimed that the assailants who fired randomly into the air stopped the route and abducted their victims.
The source claimed that five people had been abducted in Olodo, a border town between Ogun and Oyo States, in the previous week.
“Just yesterday, some gunmen abducted five persons, but two of them were later released.
“Also, last month, three people were killed. Among those who were killed was a popular businessman, who operated a big farm along the axis.
“The Olu of Odeda in Odeda town, Oba David Olorunisola, was almost kidnapped this week while his driver was shot, and he’s still receiving treatment at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC).
“We need help, this is getting too much. Our people are no longer safe, we need government’s intervention and security agencies to wake up to their responsibilities”, the source said.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the state police command, Omolola Odutola, confirmed the incident, adding that the police and other security operatives are on the trail of the abductors.
“We don’t know the identity of the man yet. We cannot say whether he was a former Provost or not. But we can confirm that someone was kidnapped.
“We learnt that the victim and his wife were coming from a function. I think the wife of the man has a school and they were just returning from an event in the school when the gunmen struck.
“The gunmen took a lot of people initially, but they later released them and took the man, his wife and the driver.
“But police and other security operatives mounted pressure on the abductors, which made them to later release other people kidnapped, including the man’s wife, but the man and his driver were taken away.
“The police have recovered the vehicle of the man, which was later abandoned by the abductors. We are on the trail of the abductors,” Odutola explained.