INSECURITY: Ondo community barricades highway over abduction of residents

Vehicular movement and other activities were on Friday grounded at Ayede Ogbese in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo state, following protest by the residents over the abduction of two residents of the town.

The people of the community who barricaded the ever-busy Owo/Akure road leading to the northern part of the country, protesting over the kidnap incident, prevented vehicular movement in and out of the area.

It was gathered that some suspected gunmen invaded the community and kidnapped a popular business and two of its workers but the businessman was said to have escaped while the kidnappers whisked the other two victims into the forest.

According to one of the protesters, who explained that the hoodlums invaded the area and kidnapped two people in the early hours of Friday.

The development angered the youths of the community who took to the highway to protest and blocked the road for several hours.

He said “the kidnappers attempted to kidnap three of the residents but one of them escaped in the process and the other two were taken away by the gunmen.

“We combed everywhere but they have moved from this area and we has to troop out to condemn the abduction and draw the attention of relevant authorities,  the state government and security operatives to help rescue these men”

It took the efforts of a detachment of police led by the Divisional Police Officer of the area to restore normalcy to the community as angry protesters rebuffed all pleas from the leadership of the town to vacate the road.

However,  the State Police spokesperson, Funmi Odunlami, said police in the state have been able to restore sanity to the area.

She appealed to the youths to allow peace to reign while  assuring that security agencies have commenced thorough searches in the area to secure the release of the kidnapped victims.

Similarly, the Ondo State Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC), Daniel Aidamenbor said efforts are on to deal with the situation.