Newsbreak: Terrorists kidnap three farmers in Ekiti

By Samuel Ogunsona

Armed terrorists have kidnapped three farmers in Ekiti State, locals told Irohinoodua on Friday.

Our correspondent was informed that about five armed men suspected to be Fulani stormed Oke-Ako Ekiti located in Ajoni Local Government on Friday, taking away three people from a private farm in the community.

“They came in broad day light. They were armed with AK 47. They shot into the air. There was no resistance as they took the three men away,’ a youth leader in the town told Irohinoodua.

Sources said as at Friday evening, the kidnappers had not contacted the family.

Those kidnapped were Mr Gbolahan Emmanuel aged 35 Mr Olaniyi and Mr Kazeem Ige, aged 45.

The incidence came few days after the Directorate of State Security Services raised the alarm that Islamic State of West Africa Province, (ISWAP) terrorists were planning to attack Ekiti, Ondo and Osun States.

Oke-Ako has seen a string of kidnapping in the past few years leading to the death of no fewer than two people one of them a member of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, (NSCDC).

Mr Boluwafe Agbana, a youth leader in the community said the latest kidnapping took place less than 300 meters away from a military checkpoint located on the main road between Oke-Ako and Irele-Ekiti. He also complained that Oke-Ako and the other five communities in Ekamefa have no single police station while the soldiers posted to the community have little knowledge about the indigenous territory.
“We want our people to be involved in the security of our community. We have hunters but they cannot be effective combating terrorists armed with AK-47,” he said.

He also raised concern about the recruitment of Amotekun saying that the few people recruited from the communities were posted to the State capital or to the Local Government Headquarters leaving the indigenous communities vulnerable.