I lost my pregnancy in kidnappers’ den –Victim

A 39-year-old woman, Ganiyat Yisau, yesterday told journalists how she was kidnapped by some hoodlums, kept in a den for eight days and eventually lost a month’s pregnancy before she was rescued by the police. Ganiyat spoke during the parade of some suspected criminals by the Oyo State Police Commissioner, Abiodun Odude, at the Eleyele Police Headquarters, Ibadan.
She said: “I was in my house at Soka area of Ibadan. On that fateful day, January 27, I was cooking for my family about 8:30p.m. when I heard someone knocking on the entrance gate. I asked my son to go and open the gate for the person since the person at the gate said he was there to deliver
materials for us from my husband who was not around then. “Those people rushed into our compound immediately my son opened the gate for them. They were armed with dangerous weapons. They pushed me and one of my sons, Feranmi aged 7, into one of the vehicles, Mercedes Benz, they brought and we were driven away to an unknown destination.

“I was tortured and was left helpless for days. One of them was always with us to look after us. I was threatened to speak to my husband on the phone, appealing to him to come and give them N100 million ransom they were demanding from my husband before we could be released. One of them who I suspect was their ring leader told me that if my husband did not cooperate with them by bringing the ransom, he would sell both me and my son to the ritual killers who need human parts. “He made me to believe that we had been taken to Ogun State. But I later overheard one of them talking on the phone to someone that he was currently at Aiyegun area.

It was then I realised that we were still within Ibadan.” Ganiyat also explained how she was rescued from the kidnappers’ den. She said: “On the eighth day, the one that usually stayed with us left us alone and I could not really explain where he left for. I used the opportunity to look around where I was, and I discovered that we were in a compound with an opened gate. I peeped out and I saw a woman who was passing by with her children. I called for help and people came closer and I asked them to help me call the police since I believed that the police would have been briefed about the incident. And the police came to the scene to rescue my son and myself out of their den.

“I lost a month’s pregnancy in their den before I was rescued. They have taken away my phones, my son’s phones and other valuables.” In a similar case, a suspected kidnap kingpin, Bolaji Shittu Temiope (40) also known as BJ, who has been on the police wanted list, was paraded for allegedly being involved in the abduction of a couple, Mr. Sunday Aremu Oladapo and his wife, Elizabeth Funmilayo Oladapo, from Jakata area, Apata, Ibadan on March 19. The victims were abducted for six days in Akinjide area where they were subjected to various forms of degrading and inhuman treatment, according to the police commissioner.
The commissioner said: “The victims were rescued by collective efforts of our men at Sanyo Division in conjunction with the command’s Anti-Kidnapping Squad, who were alerted by the people in the neighbourhood. “However, intensive investigation carried out by our operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad led to the arrest of one of the suspects, Sola Ogundele, aged 40, a ring leader who is currently helping the police in their investigation.”
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