Two farmers have been abducted at the Parubber community in the Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Council Area of Ondo State while working at their farm on Friday. The armed attackers reportedly emerged from nearby bushes and overpowered their victims before forcefully taking them away.
An eyewitness, Yemi Omowale, who narrowly escaped the attack, said one of the kidnappers, who was masked and carrying an AK-47 rifle, accosted one of the victims, Adetan Gbemi. “Because we were not standing together, I saw him first. The attacker was masked and carrying an AK-47. Before I could raise an alarm, he had already moved toward Gbemi, and others emerged from different directions,” he recounted.
Omowale, who fled during the attack, said the kidnappers also abducted another farmer, a female whose identity has yet to be made known. According to him, the kidnappers have since established contact with the wife of one of the abducted victims, demanding a ransom of ₦100 million for the release of the two farmers. “They still call the wife of the victim, asking her how much she has raised so far. We are begging the security agencies and the government to help us rescue our brother and sister unharmed,” Omowale said.
The incident has been reported to both the Nigeria Police Force and the Ondo State Security Network Agency (Amotekun) in the local government area. The spokesperson for the Ondo State Police Command, Jimoh Abayomi, confirmed the incident, saying that a joint security team comprising police operatives, including the Anti-Kidnapping Squad, local hunters and vigilante groups, had been swiftly mobilised to the scene. “Search and rescue operations are currently ongoing, with all available operational and intelligence resources being deployed to locate the victims and bring the perpetrators to justice,” Abayomi said.
The abduction of farmers in Ondo is part of a disturbing trend. About two weeks ago, gunmen opened fire on a female motorist in an attempted highway robbery along the Ondo-Ile-Oluji road but failed to halt the vehicle. The police said they were trailing the attackers, but the public has yet to be updated on the matter. The ₦100 million ransom demand is a staggering sum for farmers, raising questions about the economics of kidnapping in Nigeria.
This echoes the 2022 abduction of farmers in Oyo State, which also involved ransom demands and protracted negotiations. The mechanism then was different, but the result was the same: farmers targeted while working, communities terrorised, and a state struggling to protect its citizens.
The winners: none. The losers: the families of the kidnapped farmers, who face the impossible choice of paying or waiting; the farming community, which faces the loss of livelihoods; and the Nigerian state, which has failed to secure its citizens.
Bottom Line: Two farmers have been kidnapped in Ondo for ₦100 million ransom. The criminals are getting bolder. The state is struggling to respond. The question is whether the victims will be rescued or another tragedy will unfold.