A team of security agencies, comprising local hunters, vigilantes, Amotekun Corps, police and men of the Nigerian Army on Wednesday killed a notorious kidnapper during a shootout in a forest around the Ekiti and Kwara border.
The deceased kidnapper was said to be one of the gunmen who kidnapped two persons at Itapaji in the Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti State Command, Sunday Abutu, said the joint security operatives also rescued the two kidnapped victims who were abducted from their residence on Sunday night.
The PPRO said, “It was in the process of picking up the ransom of about N2m that the security operatives which comprised of local hunters, vigilantes, soldiers and the police gave them hot chase up to Eruku in Kwara State where one of the kidnappers was gunned down during a gun battle.
“Items such as one AK 47 riffle with 25 live rounds ammunition, one cutlass, two small Itel phones belonging to the victims and a cash sum of N210,000 were recovered from the kidnapper.
“The corpse of the kidnapper as well as the all the exhibits recovered were handed over to the nearby military checkpoint for onward transmission to Ekiti State Police Command while the security operatives continued with their operation.
A source, who shed more light on the incident, told newsmen in Ado Ekiti that the suspected kidnapper was killed by combined forces of soldiers, police and local security task force belonging to Fulani extraction called Yan Banga, set up by a Sarkin Fulani in Ekiti, Alhaji Adamu Abashe, inside a forest at Eruku, in Kwara State.
The source said, “The joint security forces chased the bandits inside the forest from 10 pm on Wednesday till around 2 am on Thursday. There were exchanges of gunshots. The kidnapper killed was carrying an AK 47 rifle. A sum of N210,000 was found inside the pocket of the dead suspect”, he said.
The Secretary of Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria, Ekiti State Chapter, Toyin Mumini, suggested that the composition of the expanded joint task force remained the best way to tackle insecurity in Ekiti.
