“He Was Dating Our Mother”: Three Brothers Remanded for Killing Mother’s Lover

11 Edo Kidnap Victims Escape as Abductors Fall Asleep After Overnight Trek

Eleven people abducted while working on their farms in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State have regained their freedom after escaping from their captors when the kidnappers reportedly fell asleep from exhaustion following an overnight trek through the forest. The victims narrated their ordeal at the Edo State Police Command headquarters in Benin City on Friday .

Speaking on behalf of the group, Braimah Destiny recounted that he was returning from his farm when he encountered six armed men carrying guns and cutlasses. According to him, the attackers also seized 10 other people before leading all 11 captives deep into the forest. Braimah said they heard gunshots, which they believed were fired by security operatives, while being taken into the bush . “I was coming from the farm when I met six of them armed with guns and machetes. They also captured others making 11 victims. They took us from one bush to another. It was around six p.m. and we heard the police shooting. They made us walk throughout the night. We got to a place and they told us to hide. They were very tired and they slept off. That was how we ran to the police. The kidnappers beat us and maltreated us,” he stated.

In a separate account, another victim, Gloria Inyanugbo, described a much longer ordeal. She was abducted on January 12 while working on her farm and spent four days in captivity. According to her testimony, after being taken into the bush, the kidnappers demanded to know how much money she had in her bank account. Her husband eventually secured her release by paying a ransom of N3 million, in addition to another N300,000 which the kidnappers demanded for food, hard drugs, and other items. She credited the subsequent arrest of the suspects to community vigilantes and police tracking efforts . “The community vigilante nabbed two of them inside the bush and the police arrested others through tracking. I saw one of them that boasted that nobody can do anything to him. I can’t imagine that the police could arrest them,” she said .

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The Edo State Police Command disclosed that it arrested 32 suspected kidnappers during operations carried out across the state in June. The command also announced that 38 kidnapped victims were rescued through intelligence-led operations and coordinated tactical interventions within the same period . Addressing journalists in Benin City, the Commissioner of Police, Monday Agbonika, said the command equally apprehended 15 suspected cultists, three armed robbery suspects, 11 murder suspects, and 14 individuals linked to rape and defilement cases .

Agbonika stated that sustained operations against kidnappers, cult groups, armed robbers, and other violent criminals, backed by enhanced intelligence gathering, had continued to yield positive results. He added that the command remained determined to deny criminal elements safe haven anywhere in the state through intensified security operations . “The accomplishments we showcase today are the outcome of the commitment, professionalism, and selflessness of the Edo State Police Command officers, who collaborate closely with other security agencies and receive patriotic support from the Edo State populace. These successes are heartening, but they also bolster our resolve to work even more to make Edo State one of the Federation’s safest states,” Agbonika said .

The Commissioner further emphasised the importance of public cooperation in achieving these security successes . “As we continue the fight against criminality, I want to sincerely thank the decent and law-abiding citizens of Edo State for their continuing cooperation and faith in the police. The timely information, intelligence, and assistance we receive from members of the public remain crucial to our operational accomplishments,” he stated .

Additional security operations in Edo have yielded further results. Police operatives, in collaboration with local vigilantes and hunters, killed a suspected kidnapper and rescued a 12-year-old girl in the Ayogwiri Community, Uzairue, also in Etsako West . The command’s spokesperson, Moses Yamu, said security officers arrested the suspect while receiving ransom from the victim’s relatives, leading to a gun duel . The victim, Blessing Anani, was rescued unhurt, while a family member who delivered the ransom sustained injuries . In another operation, police rescued two individuals—Godday Irieude and Wisdom Emeka—who were abducted from their farm in the Ewatto area around 1 a.m. on June 26, 2025, tracking the kidnappers to their hideout . The superior firepower of the operatives forced the abductors to flee with gunshot wounds, leading to the successful rescue of the victims unharmed .

Furthermore, the Edo State Government and the police command have launched a manhunt for a suspected arms supplier, identified as Liberty, linked to the kidnapping of a woman at the Benin Vegetable Market . One of the arrested suspects, Marvellous Israel, told police that N1.5 million out of the N2.8 million ransom payment recovered was meant for Liberty, noting that N8 million was collected as ransom for the woman’s release . The police spokesperson, Eno Ikoedem, confirmed that all suspects linked to the Benin market kidnapping have been arrested, while one was killed, and the police are on the trail of the alleged arms supplier . In a separate case, a woman who was abducted alongside her daughter in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area identified her kidnappers when they went to the community market to buy foodstuffs, leading to their arrest by a joint team of military personnel and operatives of the Edo State Security Network after the woman raised the alarm .

11 Edo Kidnap Victims Escape as Abductors Fall Asleep After Overnight Trek

We Went for Two Children in the Absence of Our Target — Kidnap Gang Leader Confesses

Umaru Usman, the suspected leader of a kidnapping syndicate, has confessed that his gang originally targeted the father of one of the abducted children but settled for the vulnerable children when the man was not at home. Usman and three others are in police custody following the dramatic rescue of the two seven-year-old victims less than 12 hours after they were taken from Ebinpejo Village via Lanlate in Ibarapa East Local Government Area. The suspects – Umaru Usman, 25; Mohammed Ibrahim Shina, 29; Abdullahi Ahmed, 28; and Sunday Idowu, 30 – were arrested in a joint operation involving the Oyo State Police Command, Amotekun Corps, local vigilantes, and hunters. The rescue came after a coordinated search mission that led security operatives deep into a forest where the kidnappers had taken the children.

Usman made the shocking disclosure in an interview with Saturday Tribune, detailing how the gang planned to abduct Alhaji Idris, a cattle owner and fellow tribesman living in the same village. However, when they arrived at Idris’s residence in the dead of the night and found him absent, they decided to take the children instead – Saliu, Idris’s son, and Mohammed, his younger brother’s son. The abduction occurred in the early hours of Saturday, June 27, when the armed gang invaded Ebinpejo Village, ransacked houses, assaulted residents, and abducted the two children before fleeing into a forest. According to Usman’s confession, the gang had waited in the bush near Maya before moving to the targeted house after midnight. “We went in and found children with their mother. We didn’t meet the fathers at home,” Usman told investigators. The suspects forced the door open, and Abdullahi brought out the two children while the mother raised an alarm that went unheeded. Barefooted and rudely awakened from sleep, the children were made to walk through the forest for over four hours before the gang rested at daybreak. They were not fed during their captivity, and no ransom demand had been made before security forces closed in.

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The Suspects and the victims

Following their arrest, the four suspects gave conflicting accounts of their involvement, each attempting to shift responsibility to the others. Usman, whom investigators identified as the coordinator of the operation, denied leading the gang and accused the other suspects of falsely implicating him. “It is true that we were arrested, but their claim that I coordinated the operation is a lie. I have never done this kind of thing before. My family has never been involved in such activities,” Usman reportedly said. He offered an unusual explanation for his involvement, claiming he acted under a spiritual influence. “I was under a spell. If I had been in my right senses, I would not have been involved.” Mohammed Ibrahim Shina, who travelled from Ilorin, Kwara State, to participate in the abduction, gave a different account. He claimed that Usman was the one who recruited him and persistently called him to join the operation. Shina said he initially resisted but eventually gave in to Usman’s persuasion. According to Shina, “He gave me an assurance that we would not be caught.” Abdullahi Ahmed, who was found with gunshot wounds during his arrest, claimed he only learned of the kidnapping plan after he had already procured the gun from Sunday Idowu. According to his confession, Usman had asked him to get a gun under the pretence of protecting cattle from thieves.

The joint security team tracked the kidnappers to their forest hideout using credible intelligence and technical surveillance. When the advancing security operatives were sighted, the hoodlums opened fire, resulting in a gun battle. The operatives responded professionally, overpowering the criminals and forcing them to flee in different directions. During the operation, Usman was arrested with gunshot wounds sustained while attempting to escape, and three mobile phones were recovered at the scene. In a follow-up operation conducted in the early hours of Saturday, Abdullahi Ahmed was also arrested with gunshot injuries believed to have been inflicted during the exchange of gunfire. Further investigations led to the arrest of Sunday Idowu, a farmer from Oja Odan in Ogun State, who allegedly provided the gun used in the operation. Idowu claimed he only knew Abdullahi and had given him the gun believing it would be used to protect cattle from thieves. “My lack of education and ignorance about the law led me into my current trouble,” he reportedly told investigators.

The two rescued children, seven-year-old Saliu and Mohammed, were immediately taken to hospital for medical attention after one of them sustained injuries during the ordeal. They have since been reunited with their families. The father of one of the victims, Mallam Idris Saliu, who was away in Bani Community at the time of the abduction, expressed shock at the incident. “I was so afraid that I could not return home that day. I came back on Sunday and was happy that the children had been rescued. I knew Umaru. We were living in the same village and I never knew he could do such a thing.”

Investigations revealed that Usman had a previous brush with the law, having allegedly killed his brother’s wife during an argument months before the kidnap operation. The incident had forced him to flee from Maya to Ilorin in Kwara State. It was during his time in Ilorin that he allegedly began planning the abduction of Alhaji Idris, his fellow tribesman. Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Olayinka Ayanlade, confirmed that the four suspects are currently assisting investigators with useful information aimed at identifying and apprehending other members of the criminal network. The Commissioner of Police, Olugbenga Abimbola, has assured residents that efforts would be sustained to rid the state of criminal elements and protect lives and property.

We Went for Two Children in the Absence of Our Target — Kidnap Gang Leader Confesses