A three- man gang of kidnappers on Friday abducted two junior secondary school pupils in Ogun State.
The pupils Zainab Rafiu, 18, and Kehinde Adeogun, 16, from Odewale Community High School, Ojurin Agbado in Ogun State.
The two were said to be walking to school on the ill-fated day when a strange vehicle parked beside them while the pupils were ordered inside the car at gunpoint.
On entering the vehicle, the abducted pupils saw three men who drove them to a bush near Oyo town.
The kidnappers who were speaking in Yoruba tied the abducted pupils separately with rope in the hands and legs, after which they left them and went away.
Kehinde, one of the abducted pupils struggled to untie himself with her teeth, after which she untied her partner.
They immediately took to their heels iand without knowing where they were going for over two hours inside the thick bush.
In the long run, the two kidnapped pupils got to the main road unknown to them. Upon inquiry from passersby, they were told the road was an expressway in Oyo town.
Respite came the way of Kehinde because she is an indigene of Òyó, but neither knew nor could locate the family’s house.
To Kehinde, all is not lost as she took her friend along and walked more than five kilometers from the expressway to Agunpopo area in Oyo town.
Still, Kehinde could not locate the family house. Both of them resolved to return back to the expressway.
Kehinde Adeogun was said to be living with her grandparents, while Zainab is staying with her parents, both residing at Agbado area in Ogun State.
But on their way back they saw a food vendor shop and stopped over where Kehinde requested a mobile phone to contact her parents in Abeokuta and to let them know their whereabouts.
Out of sympathy by some passersby who listened to the abducted pupils, the food vendor was able to release her phone to Kehinde who called both her parents and that of her friend.
The father of Kehinde responded by sending a number that his daughter would call in the town and handle the situation.
In a swift response, Kehinde called the number which belonged to Alhaji Mufutau Ogunsola ( Baba Ayaba Oloko) from Alagbede’s compound and a father – In- law to the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba ( Dr.) Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III.
Alhaji Ogunsola rushed to where the abducted girls were and took them to the Palace. a
When the information reached the Alaafin, he immediately directed that the Directorate of State Security Service ( DSS) be informed immediately, while the abducted children be well-fed, bathed, and adequate medical care given to them.
It will be recalled that both the Alaafin’s father-in-law and father of the abducted Kehinde are from Alagbede’s compound in Oyo, though Kehinde’s parents lived at Alagbado in Ogun State.
Narrating their experiences respectively with the Alaafin Media team, both said the abductors carried two AK-47 rifles when they were being taken into the thick bush.
“They ( abductors) spoke Yoruba and one of them said that our lives will soon end inside the bush”.
Sobering with tears, apparently from trauma, Zainab hinted that she, Kehinde and other friends usually go to school together, adding “the road leading to the school though not bushy and in the vicinity of the town, but not as busy as the township roads “
As at the time of filing this report, brother to Kehinde’s father, Quasim Wasiu has arrived at the ancient Palace from Agbado in Ogun State to receive Kehinde Adeogun, along with a 78-year-old Pa Samuel Adebanjo Adeogun
