Some armed gunmen at the weekend stormed the Iba Community at the Iba Local Council Development Area of Lagos State and kidnapped the traditional ruler, Goriola Oseni.
According to an eyewitness account, the gunmen, numbering about 16, had stormed the community in two boats and announced their presence by shooting sporadically into the air.
Although details of the attack were still sketchy at press time, it was gathered that the gang had killed a member of the local vigilante and also allegedly shot and injured the wife of the traditional ruler.
After terrorising the community, the gunmen made away with the traditional ruler and left in their boats through.
Meanwhile, the combined effort of operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), the Ikorodu Police Division of the Lagos State Police Command and some local vigilante at the Ikorodu area of the state, yesterday night foiled a kidnap attempt made on the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), Chairman of Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) workers.
The 10-man gang had accosted the NUPENG chairman right in his home and had riddled his door with bullets while trying to gain access and when the kidnap attempt failed, they escaped with a car and two motorbikes.
The kidnap gang had targeted the NUPENG Chairman, Rasaq Alabi, and would have successfully whisked him away to unknown parts but for the quick response of the police team led by the RRS Commander, Olatunji Disu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police.
The operatives, while responding to the sounds of sporadic gunshots at Agbede at the Owutu and Agric Area of Ikorodu, at about 11.30p.m. at the weekend, had run into the gang and foiled their attack.
Speaking on account of anonymity, a senior police officer who spoke to THISDAY said: “We were alerted about some sporadic shooting at Ikorodu. Our men were deployed there and they discovered that it was a kidnap attempt.
“The target was the NUPENG PTD Chairman, Rasaq Alabi. With the help of the local vigilante, we were able to repel the gang and foiled the kidnap attempt.”
When contacted, the RRS Commander, ACP Olatunji Disu, said: “We arrived at the Agbede area of Owutu in Ikorodu with the Owutu divisional police officer and discovered the shooting was an attempt to kidnap NUPENG PTD Chairman, Rasaq Alabi.
“It was the quick response of the police and vigilante men that scuttled the kidnap attempt but the gang escaped.
“We were also there to carry out the Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni’s directive to secure and patrol the crises areas of Ikorodu and it paid off as we were able to respond in record time.”
