Police rescue kidnapped Ilorin truck owner

The police in Kwara State said they have secured the release of a 46-year-old truck owner, Musa Atere, who was kidnapped in Ilorin on Tuesday morning.

Premium Times reported how Mr Atere’s abductors had demanded a N30 million ransom from his family for his release.

But the spokesperson of the police in the state, Ajayi Okasanmi, said Mr Atere was rescued at a village in Oko Olowo area of Ilorin in the early hours of Wednesday without payment of the ransom.

“He has been released due to the pressure mounted on the abductors by the police. No money was paid apart from the money they took from the victim on the date of attack,” Mr Okasanmi told PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr Atere was kidnapped at about 6 a.m. on Tuesday along Ogundele/Madi road in Ilorin West Local Government Area while going to the General Hospital, Ilorin for treatment of his daughter.

He was with his wife in his car when the abductors ambushed them and took him away after dispossessing his wife of the money in her purse.

Mr Okasanmi said the police acted on information that the kidnapers were holding him in a bush in Oko Olowo, an area of the state capital.

“Following a report received by the police that a tipper owner was kidnapped in Ilorin on Tuesday, the state Commissioners of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Bagega, ordered the state anti kidnapping unit of the Command to go into action and following information that the kidnapers were holding the victim in a bush at Oko Olowo area, the police surrounded the bush and when the kidnapers felt that the police were close to the place, they abandoned the victim and ran away.

“The man ran to the villagers who assisted him and brought him to the Ilorin-Jebba express road at Oko Olowo. The man was rescued without paying any ransom and he has been handed over to his family.”