Abductors suspected to be Fulani herdsmen have set free a 35-year-old woman, Mrs. Tope Olorunfemi, who was kidnapped last week on Afo/Idoani road in Ose LGA of Ondo State.
She recounted that it was the Okada rider that was taking her home that ‘sold’ her to the suspected Fulani gunmen who kidnapped her.
A staff of Xiamen Wine Stone in Afo, Mrs. Olorunfemi was abducted on her way back home from work on motor cycle otherwise known as Okada at a gunpoint near Irekari Comprehensive High School, Idoani.
Narrating her ordeal, the victim said the kidnappers first rushed her and the commercial cyclist into a nearby bush where they dispossessed her of all her personal effects at a gunpoint.
According to her, the cyclist was released few hours after the abduction, leaving her to trek several hours with the suspects throughout the night in the bush.
It was unknown to the kidnappers that Olorunfemi could speak Hausa language.
She said she was rudely shocked to hear the conversation between the cyclist and the kidnappers, negotiating on how to share whatever ransom the family can afford to pay.
The following day, hunters from the four communities- Idoani, Idogun, Afo and Imeri- organised a search party to fish out the victim, when a call suddenly came from the kidnappers demanding for N3m ransom.
After four days of pleadings and negotiations, the kidnappers agreed to take N300, 000 from the family of the victim following the intervention of all the royal fathers, chiefs and well- meaning individuals from the four communities.
Some residents of the area, while describing the incident as unfortunate, expressed worries over incessant killing, kidnapping, raping and destruction of their cash crops by the suspected herdsmen.
They also raised concerns over the safety of their sons and daughters, who are unable to come home over the fear of being kidnapped by the herders on the road.
They alleged all roads leading to the four communities have been taken over by the criminals.
They therefore appealed to government to urgently disarm the herdsmen to free them from the siege of the herders.
They also called on government to register all commercial motorcycles operating in the area for security purposes.
Credit: punchng.com
