Terrorists Abduct 10 Travellers in Ogun, Demand N25m Ransom — Ex-corps Member’s Family in Anguish

It was supposed to be a journey home — a celebration after one year of service to the nation. Now it is a nightmare.

Twenty-four-year-old Olusoji Adedapo had just completed his National Youth Service in Edo State last week. Full of hope, he boarded a bus in Benin City on Tuesday morning, heading back to Ibadan to reunite with his family. He never arrived.

At Ijebu Awa, the lonely boundary community between Ogun and Oyo states, terrorists lurking in the bush struck. Ten travellers were dragged away into the forest. Now the kidnappers are demanding N25 million, and the clock is ticking.

Adedapo’s family is shattered.

His cousin, Adeseye Timilehin, said the young graduate had been chatting all through the trip — sending videos, giving updates, laughing about the traffic in Benin.

“I have the videos of the traffic jam on my phone. By the time they got out, it was already 3 p.m.,” Timilehin said, his voice heavy.

The passengers begged the driver to turn back to Benin and continue the next day. It was getting late. The road was unsafe. But the driver insisted on pushing forward.

By 7 p.m., at Ijebu, hell broke loose.

“The bandits jumped in front of their bus. The driver swerved into the bush and stopped,” Timilehin recounted, quoting Tunde — Dapo’s friend and fellow ex-corps member who miraculously escaped by hiding in the bush.

“The rest ran for safety and were captured.”

Tunde spent the night at a police station after being rescued. A search party of policemen and vigilantes combed the forest that same night. Nothing. No trace of the 10 souls swallowed by the bush.

On Wednesday morning, Dapo’s mother, his aunt and a family friend rushed from Ibadan to Awa-Ijebu. At the police station, they were handed only his luggage — his clothes, his NYSC memories — and told to go home and wait for the kidnappers to call.

The call came while they were trudging back to the motor park. A cold, hard voice: N20 million.

Dapo’s mother collapsed in tears.

“My aunt started crying and pleading with them that there was no way we could raise that amount,” Timilehin said.

For a brief, agonizing moment, they heard Dapo’s voice. He was alive. Shaken. Terrified.

Minutes after they returned to Ibadan, the phone rang again. The price had gone up: N25 million. Then silence. The line went dead.

Since then, the phone has become an instrument of torture.

On Thursday morning, another call: “If you don’t find the money, that means you have already released Dapo to us.”

Then Dapo himself was allowed to call his mother, his voice trembling: “Mummy, please call my elder brother, tell him to reach out to his friends.”

He called Timilehin too, his voice shaking uncontrollably.

“I told him we had only been able to raise N700,000. His voice was shaking throughout… He pleaded with me to contact everybody I could,” Timilehin said.

“He called again in the evening. ‘How much have you raised?’ I said nothing more had come. He dropped the call.”

The family is now running from door to door, friends to relatives, begging for help, counting every naira against a N25 million death sentence.

“Dapo is not just my cousin. He is my elder brother. His parents are my immediate siblings,” Timilehin said, fighting back tears.

Ten travellers. One forest. Ten families holding their breath.

Meanwhile, the Ogun State Police Command says investigation is ongoing.

Spokesman DSP Oluseyi Babaseyi Ogunnaike said efforts are ongoing to establish the circumstances of the attack and secure the release of the victims — but for the families, every hour feels like an eternity.