Family of the commercial motorcyclist, Sikiru Salami, who has
been linked to the discovery of the Ibadan kidnappers den,
has appealed to the police to find their son.
The family’s plea came on the day the Commissioner of Police
in Oyo State, Mohammed Ndabawa, said the site had existed
for over 10 years.
Our correspondent, who visited the family members at the
Kudeti area of Ibadan, was told that Sikiru was not among
those rescued in the forest. They said they trusted the police
to find him.
Sikiru’s father, Sule Salami, said he believed that his son was
alive. He said Sikiru disappeared after taking some people to
Soka on Thursday night.
It was during the search for the rider that the search party
stumbled on the kidnappers’ den.
He said, “My son is 27 and he plies Olomi, Idi-Arere and its
environs. On Friday morning, his wife came to my house to
report that he did not come home on Thursday. We started
looking for him, but later heard that his motorcycle was
spotted under the Soka Bridg
“His wife told me that he took one man known as Oris to the
Soka area. We reported Oris to the police and he was
arrested.”
Sikiru’s father added that before his son took Oris to Soka,
he first took an Islamic scholar who lives around Kudeti to
Bodija.
“On their way, Oris called him on the telephone and he turned
back, taking permission from Alfa (Islamic scholar). It was
the Alfa that alerted us that Oris was my son’s last passenger.
My son is alive and he will come back home one day. I appeal to
the police to help find him,” he said.
Sikiru’s wife, Mujidat, said, “I have three children for him.
The last time I called him was some minutes after 8pm on
Thursday. I am a tailor, but since my husband’s disappearance,
the care of the children has been my burden.”
On claims by some friends of Sikiru that he called them and
said he was in a dungeon, his father said, “I am not sure about
the claim. If he were to call anyone, he would have called me or
his older brother.”
Sikiru’s brother, Waheed, said he and six other boys from the
Kudeti area were the first to discover the kidnapped people in
the forest.
“Outside the building, we met a man drinking beer, as soon as
he saw us, he called his colleague who had a gun. He shot at us,
so we ran towards the bank of the nearby Ogunpa River. They
spoke Hausa, but one of us who understood the language said
that the one with the gun said that he had only one more bullet
in his gun. So we stoned them until they ran into an abandoned
building. We called the police and met nine women in a room
and some in other rooms, chained to the wall,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Oyo State Security Council on Tuesday,
affirmed its resolve to apprehend perpetrators of the
dastardly act at the Soka area.
Addressing journalists after the meeting headed by Governor
Abiola Ajimobi, the commissioner of police, stated that
preliminary investigations had revealed that the den of
kidnappers had been in existence since about 10 years.
“That place has been there for a very long time, perhaps about
10 years. It was initially used by a construction company, and
later, the site was abandoned. Kidnapping had been on, but
government was not aware of it,” he said.
Ndabawa said a team of forensic pathologists had been sent
from the Force headquarters, Abuja,
“They were on the site yesterday (Monday) and they will
continue their work before the demolition of the structures
at the forest.” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment