No fewer than eight residents were on Tuesday night kidnapped in the Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
The abductors were said to have contacted the family of the victims on Wednesday morning, according to sources, and demanded N50 million ransom.
A source said on Wednesday that the gunmen, at about 9.30pm, invaded a house where the houseowner was preparing for the burial of his mother, shot sporadically into the air and made away with eight persons.
“The men numbering seven came around 9.30pm with guns and surrounded the building. They fired gunshots sporadically,” a resident told journalists.
According to him, the absence of police in Itapaji, Ayebode, Irele and Oke Ako, emboldened the gunmen to operate without resistance, adding that the nearest police station is in Ikole Ekiti, which is over 40 minutes’ drive to the troubled spots.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, Sunday Abutu, confirmed the incident, saying, “The command is working on that (the kidnap incident). Already, special police operatives as well as the Joint Task Force have been deployed in that axis to ensure they rescue the victims and for possible arrest of the culprits.”
