Building Materials Magnate Kidnapped

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aranse-Olu Merchant Dealers in Ijebu Ode, Alhaji Safiriyu Araba, 56,  was yesterday kidnapped in a mosque.

Our correspondent gathered that the Ago Iwoye-born businessman, who is a  leading building materials dealer in Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria, was abducted immediately after the morning prayers in Osenatu Iyalode Mosque near his house around 6a.m.

His wife, a teacher at the Ikoto Comprehensive High School, Ikoto-Ijebu, told our correspondent in his residence at 3, Adebayo Lawal Street, Olorunsogo, Molipa in Ijebu Ode Local Government Area of Ogun State, that the incident was still like a dream to her.

According to her, “Alhaji was abducted inside the mosque and some of the people who saw the abductors told us that they had been lurking around the area from around 4a.m. The Imam who also confirmed this, said he thought they wanted to fetch water and he went to open the tap for them.

“Immediately after the morning prayers, the boys came into the mosque and asked everybody to lie down. One of the boys pointed Alhaji to others and they quickly accosted him and asked him to move into their waiting car outside. They collected the phones of members of the congregation, threatening to kill anyone that tried to stop them. They took  Alhaji into their car and sped off.”

On whether her husband had a business deal with anybody that could have led to his abduction, the heavily pregnant woman said: “That has never happened before and Alhaji did not have any deal with anybody; everybody in this town can attest to that. He is an easy going person.Hardly do people believe that he is Aranse because of his humility. If not for the guns the small boys were carrying, they could not have succeeded. Alhaji is not a person that can be easily intimidated. They succeeded because he was afraid that if he struggled with them, they could  kill people in the mosque.”

Sympathisers were seen trooping to his house Monday morning even as his relations from Ago Iwoye have also arrived his residence.

His office along Ibadan Road in Ijebu Ode was under lock and key when our correspondent visited the place.

His wife told P.M.NEWS that the abductors have not contacted them since the man was taken away early yesterday.

She appealed to the abductors to release her husband.

Kidnapping is becoming a worrisome phenomenon in Ogun State. In May this year, an employee of Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, OOUTH, Sagamu, Dr. Mrs Sola Otulana, was kidnapped at Agbowa-Ikosi on Ikorodu-Ijebu Ode Road; and the owner of Citi Hotels and Suite, Segun Ayobolu, was also abducted early last month. They were not released by their abductors until their families paid undisclosed amount of money as ransom.

—Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta