By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
Mysteries surrounding the death of three suspected kidnappers in the surburb of the sleepy town of Oro Ago in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State is still foggy on Wednesday, according to this reporter’s findings.
The three were said to be notorious for unholy activities, including kidnapping in the area and they were alleged to be members of an eight-man gang of kidnappers, who just returned from a kidnapping spree in Iwo, Osun State, two weeks ago, when nemesis, through thunderstrike, caught up with them.
Sources in Oro Ago told CompassNG that it was the local hunters – vigilante group – members who of late had been assigned by the people of the agrarian communities in the area to keep watch and help ward off the persistent threats occassioned by the people believed to be Fulani herders.
Cases of kidnapping and demands for ransoms and occassional killing of innocent citizens in both Oro Ago of Ifelodun Local Government and the neighbouring communities of Isin Local Government Area had become rampart in recent time, particularly, when some Fulani herders suspectedly displaced from Oyo State last year by the locals in Oke Ogun areas of the state found solace in Kwara State.
Also, it is a known fact that there is a thick concentration of Fulani settlers in Oro Ago for some decades, leading to strong inter-marriages as well as sharing many other things in common among themselves.
However, in about the last ten years, the table appeared to have turned and pockets of bloody clashes began to be recorded. The situation at a stage took a worse dimention and turned to outright kidnappings of the host locals, where huge reansoms were forcefully collected before such victims could regain their freedoms.
This time around however, without any stiff resistance from the locals, it was strangely a thunderstrike that killed three of suspected kidnappers in a bush, where they were allegedly hiding to hatch their evil plans. They were said to suffer burns from the thunderstrikes, leading to their death.
The development, according to the sources, is lending credence to the Yoruba believe in ‘Sango,’ the god of thunder, reputed to have mystical powers to avenge on the enemies of his people through thunderstrikes.
This reporter was told that the precarious state of insecurity in recent time in the the area caused the communities in the two council areas to form a joint local vigilance team in the Igbomina Kwara, aimed at checking security challenges in the local government areas in the Southern axis of the state.
Members of the vigilate group, who stumbled on the burnt bodies of the alleged kidnappers reportedly recorded it in a video which had gone viral in Kwara State.
In the one-minute-thirteen seconds viral video of the incident, the decomposing bodies of three young persons, presumably in their 20s, already burnt beyond recognition in a bush, with flies all over the area were seen and a voice was heard saying, “We’re members of the vigilance team in Igbomina Kwara. Our efforts against those perpetrating evil and kidnapping people in our area had yielded fruits.
“Thunderstrike struck them dead. Three of them. God will continue to make us successful against the evil doers. We shall overcome them all by the grace of God. Thank you all.”
Also, another video clip showed some Fulani herders, said to be relations of the victims of the thunderstrike, in a bush, bemoaning the death of their own. They described the incident as an act of God, that could not be questioned by anyone and affirmed that thunderstrike killed the three young men, which was purely an sct of God and not a man-made.
In Oro Ago, a member of the Oro-Ago Development Union, ODU, a socio-cultural organization of indigenes of the area, who prederred anonimity confirmed the incident.
He said that members of the vigilance team in the area had briefed the ODU on the development.
Also, the newly posted Police Commissioner to Kwara State CP Ebunoluwarotimi Adelesi, said that the command and its men had already commenced investigations into the development, promising that the veracity of the incident would be ascertained after diligent investigations.
