24th August, 2011
Oyinola Ibidokun, a business woman and mother of a four-year old kidnap victim, David Ayomide Ibidokun, has cried out to government and security agencies to save her life from the hands of some unknown assailants who have allegedly been making life unbearable for her family lately.
The woman, whose son was allegedly kidnapped last year by some mask-wearing gunmen around Olodi Apapa, Lagos and found three months later, said she and her family had thought that the matter had been laid to rest with the intervention of some security agencies including the police, but suddenly, more threats have continued to come from some people and she and her family no longer have freedom of movement.
Narrating her ordeal to Lagos Bulletin, Mrs. Ibidokun, whose husband, Oluwafemi Solomon Ibidokun, lives in Spain, said she was the first person that was kidnapped for three days sometimes last year before the suspected kidnappers resurfaced to kidnap her only her son, David, who was taken away for three months and was later found through the help of the police.
“That night of 19 June 2010, we were going for a vigil in church together with my mother when some gunmen attacked us and took away my child strapped to my mother’s back, thinking I was the one carrying him. I shouted for help but it was late and there was no one to assist, while the gunmen drive away.
“They later dropped off my mother with their car on high speed when they found out I wasn’t the one they kidnapped with the boy and she sustained injuries in the process. And then, the search began for my boy, but he was nowhere to be found,” she narrated, adding that it later took the intervention of the police and some other security agencies who arrested some suspects before her son was found three months later.
Also speaking, her family lawyer, Barrister Akinyemi Idris, said that series of petitions were written to the Commissioner of Police at the time, Marvel Akpoyibo, who later assured them that the boy would be found.
“It was three months later that we found out David had been taken to Cameroon and when he was returned, the boy could no longer identify any member of his family. We took him to the hospital and was there for weeks before he regained consciousness,” the lawyer added.
But the woman is now appealing to government and other security agencies to come to he aid, more so now, that she has started receiving more threats on phone from some people whose identity she does not know.
“We can no longer attend vigil in church, while my son dreads going out at night and even socialise with his peers, while we have to beef up security around him when going to school daily. We no longer attend parties and other social functions as our lives and movements have been restricted by these unknown people,” she pleaded.