A farm customer was shot dead by Fulani gunmen on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, while a security guard was abducted when they invaded Living Yield Farms in Fiditi Town, Oyo State at about 5:45p.m.
But the security guard, with the help of police presence in the surroundings, was able to escape in the early hours of Thursday, March 18, from his abductors’ hideout in the forest.
Information gathered by Thenewsbearer had it that the gunmen, seven in number, arrived at the farm at the time the workers were closing for the day.
With five of them armed with AK-47 rifles and other guns, it was learnt that they searched for victims to kidnap, with one of them targeting the farm manager, Mr Adelakun Sunday, at the time he was about leaving his office.
The kidnap gang member was said to have headed towards the manager, holding a rifle menacingly.
This made the manager to quickly retreat to his office, lock the door, ran to his toilet and clamber up the ceiling to hide.
Infuriated by the manager’s move, the kidnap gang member started pumping bullets into the office door, but could not gain entry.
The manager could also hear other kidnappers shooting sporadically, until there was quietness about five minutes after.
Waiting for another 10 minutes to make sure the kidnappers had gone, Mr Sunday reportedly descended from the ceiling and came out.
However, he noticed that the kidnappers had ransacked his Mercedes Benz car parked within the farm premises.
Also, it was discovered that the security guard, an indigene of Plateau State, called Felix, had been taken away by the abductors.
The owner of the farm was not around then, as it was learnt that he travelled.
Other workers, who had fled into the bush for safety, also started returning to the farmland when they felt it was safe to do so.
Thenewsbearer further gathered that the manager and others discovered the body of a customer, an Igede man from Benue State, during a search around the farm.
The deceased, who was said to have come to the farm on his Bajaj motorcycle, had bought two dead chickens, which he had put in a sack, before he met his death.
When police were informed, the Nigerian Tribune learnt that they went to the farm to recover the body of the deceased man, and took it to the mortuary at a hospital for autopsy.
They were said to have found three expended shells of AK-47 rifle bullets and one empty cartridge shell at the scene.
They also started combing the bush to search for the kidnappers, in order to rescue the security guard.
However, the security man was said to have escaped from his abductors in the middle of the night, without payment of any ransom.
Thenewsbearer gathered that due to pressure put on the kidnappers by the police operatives searching for them, they moved to a hideout, where they bound their victim’s hands with a chain and tied him.
However, noticing that the abductors had slept off, Felix extricated himself from the chain and fled before they would wake up.
He was said to have showed up on Thursday morning.
When contacted, the state police spokesman, CSP Olugbenga Fadeyi, confirmed the story, attributing the escape of the victim to pressure put on the abductors by the police, through continuous search for the criminals who tried to hide to evade arrest.
He said that the body of the deceased had been deposited in mortuary at State Hospital, Oyo, for autopsy, while investigation had commenced into the incident.
