By Ayodele Oni
Commander of Amotekun Corps in Ondo state, Adetunji Adeleye disclosed on Monday that forest reserves in the state have become abode of criminals, especially kidnappers.
The Commander, while parading some suspects, disclosed that 20 out of 29 persons currently being held by the security outfit are suspected kidnappers.
“The resurgence of kidnapping within the state made us to go deep into forests to fish out these kidnappers. We have a total number of 29 criminals, and about 20 of them are suspected kidnappers.
“We also invited all those that came to complaint that they were kidnapped in the last three to four months in the state and they were able to identify majority of them.
“As a matter of fact, we have to cross the river before we were able to arrest them, and we were equally attacked by them.
“We also found out that these criminals live in our forests along Ala-Dada, Jugbere, up to Ijagba and we were able to comb the forests.
“Some of these criminals engage in feedings victims, charging their phones, and a lot of other things that they do.
While narrating her ordeal while in the kidnappers den, a 23-year-old young lady, Odey Olayemi, stated that she spent seven days in the bush with her abductors.
Olayemi was kidnapped at a farm located at Ago-Oyinbo village in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo state by four armed kidnappers.
The victim, who described her ordeal as horrific, however, revealed that the sum of N350,000 was paid for her ransom and she spent seven days in the kidnappers’ den.
According to Olayemi, “My mum and dad were in the town, I now went to the village to go and help my sisters before our resumption in order to get money to take to school.
“On that faithful day, we were at the farm and suddenly we saw these three kidnappers coming towards where we are, I now told my sisters that these Fulani people are coming to our side that I’m going to run, but they said that I should not go anywhere that they are not going to do anything to us.
“When they got to us, they asked us to kneel down and we knelt down. At that moment we started begging them. Two of them were with guns while the third person was with cutlass.
“They later asked me to standup and told me that I should be following them, they took cassava stick and started beating me as we were going.
“I spent seven days with them, they asked for my dad’s number but I told them that I did not know it off-hand because I have already lost my memory.
“I later told them I did not have parents again, that they have died, that I just came to the village to help my sisters so that I will get money to take care of myself when I get back to school.
“But they said it was a lie, that they knew everything about my family and I later gave them my number because I was not with my phone on that day.
“Immediately I gave them my number, they started calling the phone but nobody picked it. Later one of my sister that came from Akure to our village picked the call and they informed her that they have kidnapped me.
“It was that my sister who now went to the Amotekun office to report before Amotekun swung into action to rescue me and I thank God that they rescued me.”
