By Peter Oriyomi
Thirteen passengers kidnapped at gun point along Osogbo-Ilesa in Osun State have been rescued by local hunters and a police patrol team.
The victims on Sunday afternoon were reportedly travelling from Osogbo to Ilesa in a commercial bus when the incident happened.
It was learnt that the thirteen travellers unknowingly boarded the bus from an Osogbo motor park with about five suspected armed kidnappers around 1:25pm on Sunday.
One of the five kidnappers was said to have asked the driver to stop for him to urinate after few minutes into the journey.
One of the victims, Ewaoluwa Oluwatofunmi, who gave account of the incident to journalists, said: “I went to Ilesha garage in Osogbo to enter a bus going to Ilesha. When I got there, I met five men with some ladies inside the bus. We moved after the bus was full but on getting to a place, the men told the driver to pack for them to urinate.
“The driver parked and when they got down, they asked others inside the bus if we were not going to come down and urinate. We told them we are mature to know if we want to urinate.
“Later, one of them told driver that one of car tires has run out of air, the driver got down and the other people in the bus also came down.
“As soon as we alighted from the bus, the men brought out guns and asked us to move inside 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 with us.
“After that, they forced us inside the bush. We heard the siren of the police and this scared the gun men. They ran away and left us there.”
Spokesperson for the Osun State Police Command, Mrs. Yemisi Opalola, who confirmed the incident, said: “We rescued the passengers from kidnappers with the help of hunters. The passengers were forced into the bush at the boundary of Osogbo-Ilesha but were found at the Brewery area inside Ilesha.”
