Men of the Ondo State Security Network Agency, also known as Amotekun Corps, have arrested two suspected kidnappers and rescued six victims from their den in Kogi State.
It was gathered that the victims were kidnapped in the late hours of last Tuesday and were rescued on Thursday, while the suspects were arrested thereafter.
A source said the victims, who were prospective corps members travelling from Ondo town to the Kaduna State National Youth Service Corps orientation camp, were abducted by gunmen on their way.
According to the source, the victims are three males and three females.
The source said, “Having been informed about the incident, the men of the Amotekun Corps in Ondo town sent out a rescue team in search of the victims and discovered that they were in a town in Kogi State.
“In collaboration with some security men in Kogi State, the victims were rescued, while the perpetrators were apprehended.”
The Corps Commander of Amotekun in Ondo State, Adetunji Adeleye, said the corps received a call from a family member of one of the victims, who is an indigene of Ondo town that she was abducted on her way to the orientation camp in Kaduna State.
Adeleye said, “It was late in the night. Hours after the incident, we succeeded in getting the number, which the kidnappers used in contacting the families of the victims and demanding N10m, and we immediately did the tracking.
We got their location, which showed that they were somewhere around Ijara in Kogi State, which is not too far from Kabba. We deployed our men from Ondo to the nearest local government to the location in Kogi State, who worked alongside the security agencies over there for a successful operation.
“We were there for almost two days, mounting pressure on them. We did lots of tracking to get to their location. They wanted N10m, but we were able to reduce it to N2m. We stylishly agreed and asked them to send an account number, where the money would be sent to. We sent N1m into the account and tracked the owner of the account. We realised it was a First Bank account in Kogi State. We went after the kidnappers with the support of the DPO of the affected area and we succeeded.”
The Amotekun boss disclosed that two suspects were arrested, including the owner of the account.
According to him, the two suspects have been handed over to the Kogi State Police Command, while the six victims have been safely rescued.