One of the five abductees, Engineer Ayodele Alabi, who regained freedom from kidnappers on Thursday night is dead.

Alabi who was released on Thursday after spending about six days in the den of the kidnappers was reported dead in the early hours of Friday in a hospital in Ilorin following trauma and injuries he sustained from the torture of the abductors.

Alabi was reportedly buried in his hometown, Osi in Ekiti local government area of Kwara state on Saturday.

The late Alabi was among the seven passengers kidnapped in a Toyota Sienna Commercial bus by gunmen last week Saturday, August 7, 2021, between Oke-Onigbin and Omu-Aran in the Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State.

One of his friends, Olabiyi Olabode, confirmed his death on Saturday night.

He said Alabi, who was a retiree, died about 4 am on Friday as a result of exhaustion and bruises he suffered in the hand of the Kidnappers.

Olabode said, “He breathed his last breath at about 4:00 am on Friday 13th August 2021 and left behind a wife and daughter he loved dearly and we brothers and friends, all sad, shaken and traumatized. He did not survive the harrowing experience in the Kidnapper’s den.

“Worse still the Police and Kwara State Government that knew nothing about the ransom and rescue went to town to claim victory for the release on radio and television.”

Olabode in his post, titled, ‘I just lost a friend to kidnappers’ said, “Precisely, on Saturday 7th August 2021 my friend turned brother Engineer Ayodele Alabi was kidnapped between Oke Onigbin and Omu-Aran in Kwara State.

“The call for ransom came the next day and the demand was N30 million. He was kidnapped along with his elder brother and three others.

“In the course of the gruesome trekking in the bush, his brother fell out of exhaustion and was left behind. He brought the news of the incident to town.

“The police was duly informed and their aloofness and that of Kwara State Government all through the harrowing experience smacked of callousness and decadence in our sociopolitical superstructure.

“Now how do we tackle a ransom of N30 million for a retiree? The problem was dumped on family and friends without government or police support. After back and forth negotiations, a figure of #4m was agreed upon. Money was delivered and kidnapped victims were released. The other victims arranged and paid their own Ransome too.

“When my friend was picked up by the rescued party he was in such a bad shape so much that he could not walk nor stand. He was beaten, battered, brutalized, and traumatized. He was supported on a bike through the thick forest back to town and straight to the hospital.

“The scourge of kidnapping is a real and present danger. It is when you are affected that you will realize that it is like a film coming to a cinema near you.

“We are living in dangerous and perilous times and the government is nonexistent and totally unresponsive and irresponsible. We demanded the victim’s phone be tracked and we found out that the Police lack such capacity because it has not paid a subscription for the service since January.

“I have a lot to write but I am saddened by this incident and will want to mourn a bit. Hopefully, I will gather my thoughts and give a piece of my mind to the Police and government. Sad so sad.”

The new Commissioner of Police, Kwara State Command, Mr. Amienbo Assayomo, on Friday confirmed the release of the rest of five kidnapped victims which he said were rescued in a forest in Ekiti state on Thursday night.

The police boss was silent on payment of ransom for the release of the victims.

He said, “Police searched all the forest in Kwara state to free the victims but we could not locate them, we later got information that they were in a forest in Ekiti state and we went up to Ilejemeje throughout the night before we secured their release on Thursday night.”

It would be recalled that three kidnapping incidents were recorded in Kwara state on Saturday, 7th, August 2021.

A Sienna Commercial bus conveying 7 People was reportedly waylaid by six armed men who emerged from the bush between Oke-Onigbin and Omu-Aran high way while a commercial Toyota Hiace Bus conveying 20 passengers and a car being driven by a pastor and his wife were simultaneously intercepted by gunmen at Ekan Meje/Ekiti axis both in Kwara state.

Police Public Relations Officer in Kwara Command, SP Ajayi Okasanmi said that the Police rescued four of the seven passengers in the Sienna bus on the same day.