Date: 2021-03-25

THE Kwara State Police Command said it had deployed its men and officers to comb forest in Asa Local Government Area of the state in search of three farm managers abducted by gunmen from two poultry farms in Pampo village on Monday.

The farm managers were reportedly seized by six heavily armed suspected kidnappers at their commercial poultry farms at Pampo community on Eyenkorin/Ogele/Afon road.

The PUNCH gathered that the incident happened at about 4:00 pm on Monday in the agricultural farm community.

It was gathered that the suspected kidnappers, dressed in army uniform, shot into the air when they arrived in a Hilux vehicle at one of the two farms where they operated.

The suspected kidnappers reportedly got hold of the chief security officer on the farm and locked him inside one of the rooms in the farm before they took away the two farm workers in the first poultry farm.

A source, who is the owner of the second farm, said the bandits also abducted his farm manager when they visited his farm on their way out of the community.

The farm owner, who did not want his name in print said the suspected kidnappers had contacted the farm owners, adding that they demanded a total sum of N45m (N15m each) as ransom for the three abducted person.

According to him, those kidnapped are two males and a female.

He disclosed that the bandits appeared to be Fulani "in the way they spoke in Yoruba language when we talked on the phone."

He stated, "On Monday, at about 4.30pm, six suspected kidnappers in Army uniform, heavily armed with AK-47 rifles, abducted three farm managers in our farms.

"We have been contacted by them. They demanded N15m each for the kidnapped people, making a sum of N45m. We begged them to take N1m for the three people, explaining that we're poor farmers. They said we should go and get good money before the release of our people."

The Police Public Relations Officer, Ajayi Okasanmi, who confirmed the incident, said the state Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Bagega, had drafted officers and men of the command towards release of the kidnapped victims.