Police rescue 54-year-old geologist from Kidnappers in Ibadan, arrest four suspects
A patrol team from the Oyo State Police Command, Sunday, rescued a Lagos-based geologist and businessman, Alhaji Abdul Akeem Amoo, from a gang of suspected kidnappers, following an agonising wailings of the captive from inside the get-away Toyota Hillux van which his abductors used in perpetrating the heinous crime.
Operatives of the police patrol team at Idi-Ayunre in the Oluyole Local Government Area of the state who arrested four of the suspected kidnapers, reported the case at the Command headquarters at Eleiyele, Ibadan where investigations were ongoing on the circumstances surrounding the kidnap.
Police sources said that the 54-year-old businessman was kidnapped during a visit to his quarry and mining firm located at Ese-Apata, via Abanla, in Oluyole Local Government Area of Oyo State.
Amoo was said to have gone to the site with a view to paying some of his staff, contractors supplying him diesel and others rendering him supplementary services.
The sources added that inside the blue Honda Accord car the business man rode to the site was the two million naira (N2million) he wanted to use to effect the various payments.
However, trouble reportedly started shortly after Amoo got to the site, when a team of ten hoodlums swarmed on him, damaged his car, pounced on him and inflicted several injuries on him before forcing him and one of his employees whose name is given as Adeleke Yahaya inside an unnumbered Toyota Hilux car
Amoo’s hands were also said to have been tied with ropes before he and Yahaya were forced inside the van and the captors drove off.
However, by providence, police patrol team at Idi-Ayunre was attracted to the van following the agonising cry for help by Amoo and Yahaya, from inside their captors’ van, making the policemen to stop the vehicle.
Amoo, while narrating his ordeal to newsmen at a private hospital in Ibadan where he was rushed to for treatment after the incident, attributed his rescue to God and the timely intervention of the police.
He said: “Just thank God for me. Yesterday, (Sunday), I came down to inspect my quarry firm here at Idi-Ayunre area and pay some of my staff and my subcontractors supplying our firm diesel and other sundry items.
“You know the Muslim festival of Eid el-Kabir is approaching. I had two million naira inside the boot of my car to settle these people. As I alighted from my car, the hoodlums, about ten in number, swooped on me and started hitting me with all sorts of objects, including guns and other weapons. They punctured the tyres of my car and later tied my hands with ropes.
They bungled me and one of my employees, Adeleke Yahaya, inside the Toyota Hilux van they have brought and they said they were taking me to somewhere in Sagamu. God, however, used the police patrol team at Idi-Ayunre to rescue me and Adeleke as our cry for help attracted their attention. I was later brought here for medical attention.”