Kidnappers Disguise As Soldiers, Abduct 25 Travellers In Kogi

One Michael Itodo, Wednesday, narrated to THE WHISTLER how kidnappers disguised as soldiers and abducted 25 passengers travelling for the yuletide in his community.

Itodo said the incident occurred last week at Ofante in Olamaboro Local Government Area of Kogi State.

According to him, “The men, wearing military camouflage, mounted a road block and were conducting stop-and-search operations on vehicles plying the route. They were confidently carrying out their operations as if they were genuinely posted there.

“The funny thing was that they were cordially interacting with the villagers. Our traditional ruler even gave them some gifts to commend them for securing our place.”

He said on the second day of their operations, they struck on their victims.

“They successfully asked passengers of two buses to disembark,” Itodo said, adding that, “Then they whisked them away. We have a vigilante group that is effective, but the manner the kidnappers conducted themselves made no one suspect them as kidnappers. I heard that the victims were made to pay huge sums of ransom to regain their freedom. Our local security network has been re-energised to avoid a recurrence of such ugly incident.”