Ekiti kidnappers strike again, abduct female teacher, four others, demand ₦50m

Gunmen have reportedly kidnapped five passengers, including a teacher identified as Mrs. Owoniyi, on Ayebode Road in the Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State.

It was learnt that the incident happened on Sunday.

The abductors were reported to have demanded ₦50m for Owoniyi, a primary school teacher in Ikole Ekiti.

A viral statement purportedly issued by teachers in Ikole Ekiti urged her colleagues in the council area to donate ₦500 into an account allegedly owned by the woman’s husband to secure her release.

The statement read, “Please, my people, let us be our brother’s keeper. The kidnappers are threatening the victim to the extent that the kidnappers put the crying agony of the woman’s voice into a loudspeaker for sympathisers to hear. Mrs Owoniyi is pleading with you and me to deliver her from death. The kidnappers have given few hours for this.”

The Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers, Ekiti State, Mr. Oke Emmanuel, denied that Ekiti teachers were contributing ₦500 each to raise the ransom.

Emmanuel said, “Only a set of teachers, who are her associates in Ikole LG, decided among themselves to contribute the said amount to help their colleague. It is a rumour; nobody asked Ekiti teachers to contribute money; it is not real.”

The NUT boss, who said he got information about the kidnap and the demand for N50m ransom through the NUT Ikole LG Chairperson, Mrs. L.O. Longe, noted that the government was “on top of the matter.”

He added that security agencies had been informed.

But the state Police Public Relation Officer, Sunday Abutu, who said there was no report of such at any of the police stations in the state, said, “Anybody with more information on the incident should approach the police. The command does not treat issues of kidnapping with levity in the state.

“To the best of my knowledge, we are not aware of such an incident. I have made a series of calls to our people in Ikole and other areas, and they said nobody has reported such an incident.”