Osun admission seeker, 12 others escape from abductors

A 19-year old admission seeker, Ewaoluwa Oluwatofunmi, living in Ilesa, Osun state has narrated how she and 12 other passengers travelling from Osogbo to Ilesa escaped from their abductors.

A top security source, who preferred anonymity, said prompt response of the men of Hunters Group of Nigeria and police operatives from Ilesa to the distress call from a relation of one of the victims, forced the abductors to abandon them and fled into the bush.

Ewaoluwa, during an interview on Monday, told The PUNCH that she boarded a bus going to Ilesa from Osogbo at a park in Ilesa Garage Area of Osun state capital around 1:30pm on Sunday.

Midway into the journey, Ewaoluwa said three out of five all-men passengers that sat the back seat of the bus, told the driver to stop the vehicle because they wanted to ease themselves.

“Around 1:30 pm on Sunday, I went to Ilesha Garage in Osogbo to enter a bus going to Ilesha. When I got the park, I met 5 men and some ladies inside the bus. We moved after the bus was filled, but on getting to a bushy area in between Osogbo and Ilesa, 3 of the men sitting at the back seat told the driver to pack for them to urinate.

“The driver obliged them and when they got down, but they asked others inside the bus to also come down and urinate. But we told them we are matured enough to know if we wanted to urinate. Later, one of them lied to the driver that one of bus tyres was deflected. The driver got down and the other people in the bus also went down.

“Few minutes before that would happen, I was on phone with my father speaking and I didn’t end the call as I left the bus.
As soon as we left the bus, the men bring out guns and asked us to move into the bush. We trekked for some minute inside the bush until the men stopped us and asked us to bring out whatever valuables we had on us.

“I submitted my big phone to the kidnappers but I kept the small phone I was using to speak with my parent in my pocket without ending the call, so they could hear we were in danger. We were doing that when suddenly, we heard the siren of the police and that scared the abductors, who were heavily armed and spoke in pidgin English. They ran away and left us there,” Ewaoluwa, who was seeking admission to a university after passing UTME concluded.

When contacted spokesperson of Osun police Command, Yemisi Opalola, in a text message confirmed the incident.

The message read, “Combined efforts of the police and hunters rescued the victims.”