The Commandant of the Amotekun Corps in Oyo State, Col. Olayinka Olayanju (retd.), has explained how security agents foiled a kidnap attempt which happened on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Friday.
The commandant said this in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Ibadan on Saturday.
He said some security agents who were coming from Lagos towards Ibadan were said to have run into the scene and engaged the kidnappers in a gun duel and eventually drove them away after foiling the attempt.
He said, โThe kidnap attempt occurred at Imolisa village and which is within the territory of Ogun State although it is not far from Dominion University which is located within Oyo State.
โI was told that the security agents had travelled to Lagos Airport to pick up their boss and were returning when they ran into the incident.
โThey were said to have exchanged fire with the criminals but eventually repelled them and chased them away before they could whisk away their targets.โ
The Police Public Relations Officer in Oyo State, Adewale Osifeso, could not be reached for comment on the said incident.
But a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity told our correspondent that if passengers had been kidnapped within Oyo State territory, such would have been reported to the police in the state.
There were reports that unspecified numbers of travellers were abducted by gunmen on Friday.
The reports quoted eyewitnesses who claimed that they saw vehicles abandoned on the road with their doors opened.
They claimed what happened must have been a case of kidnap but they could not get any confirmation to authenticate the story, saying efforts to get official reactions to it were unsuccessful.
