Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The police have arrested three persons in connection with the abduction of a United Kingdom (UK) trained son of Prof Isaac Adewole, a former Minister of Health and ex-vice chancellor of University of Ibadan, Adedayo Adewole, a medical biochemist, who was kidnapped on Tuesday evening by gunmen in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The police have also launched a manhunt for the kidnappers of the young Adewole, who was said to have been kidnapped at about 5:30p.m on Tuesday in his poultry farm located at Iroko, a suburb of Ibadan, in Akinyele Local Government Area of the state.
The three persons who were arrested included the driver that the victim employed few days ago, Mr. Gbenga Ogunleye; the farm manager, Mr. Sodiq Adebayo, and one other worker in the farm. Adebayo said the kidnappers were four in number and their hooded leader wore military camouflage, while three others did not cover their faces, but only put on black clothes, and were armed with guns and other dangerous weapons, adding that the kidnappers spoke a language he suspected to be Fulani language.
The victim said to have been taken away from his farm in his car and the car was later abandoned about two kilometres to the farm, and he was taken into the thick forest, and probably transferred into another vehicle. The car was recovered from where it was parked. But a combine team of security agencies and local hunters reportedly combed the forest throughout the night of Tuesday with a view to rescuing the young Adewole, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police in charge of Zone 11, comprising Oyo, Osun and Ondo States, Mr. Leye Oyebade, and Commissioner of Police of Oyo State, Mr. Shina Olukolu, on Wednesday afternoon visited the farm, and the point where the victim’s car was abandoned near Aba Ode Junction around Amosun village.
Adedayo, who bagged his Bachelor’s degree in Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, also obtained postgraduate degrees in Medical Biochemistry at University of Warwick and University of Nottingham in the UK from where he won a cross-continental research fellowship at Harvard University, United States. He returned to Nigeria in 2014 to participate in the one year mandatory participation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and he was posted to Oyo State.
During the service year, Adedayo on Monday February 16, 2015, donated a well-equipped library that worth N5.6million to Iroko community, as well as a borehole as part of his Community Development (CD) project in the NYSC scheme. In appreciation of what he did for the community, he was conferred with an honourary chieftaincy title of Oluomo of Irokoland, by the Oniroko of Irokoland, Oba Olasunkanmi Opeola.
Prof Adewole, it was gathered, was out of the country at the time the incident occurred and he reportedly cut short his trip.
As at the time filing this report, the police could not confirm whether the victim’s family had been contacted for ransom.
Oyebade, while addressing journalists on Wednesday afternoon at the scene of the crime, said the police had launched a manhunt for the kidnappers, as he assured members of the public that the kidnapped victim would be rescued, adding that the police would deploy their arsenal, including STI (Science, Technology and Innovation) in the operation.
“Actually, this incident is very unfortunate because it is coming after we have been able to map out a lot of strategy to address the challenge we are facing by these undesirable elements.
“From our inspection of the scene, interaction and interrogation
of the workers, and those that were present at the scene, we can really say that the modus operandi is changing, the tactic is changing, and their way of operating is changing. Since they now know that we have been able to cover the roads, they are now coming to isolated areas, looking for targets that can be approached, having monitored them.
“With what we gathered here, the suspects covered their faces and from the story that is being given, we are not ruling out the involvement of those that are very close, in this particular situation. But whatever it is, we are going to unmask those that are behind this, and that is the assurance I am giving to members of the public.
“The Inspector General of Police has given a mandate and on that mandate we stand that kidnapping will become highly unprofitable. With the system we are going to use now, with the application of STI and with the commitment and drive of police officers that have been deployed, we are going to uproot them,” Oyebade stated.
He also enjoined all and sundry to be security conscious, adding that in recruiting staff, employers must go beyond ordinary interviews, by ensuring that the potential employees bring collateral, get their photographs and do underground checks of the personality being considered for employment, either as driver, cook, or gatekeeper because many of them have tendencies to give out their principals to kidnappers or armed robbers.