Gunmen have kidnapped a former deputy vice-chancellor (academics) of the University of Ibadan (UI) Prof Adigun Agbaje.
The professor of political science was among those who were kidnapped by suspected gunmen on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Friday night. A police officer was killed in the incident.
Agbaje, who is said to be currently on sabbatical at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), was on his way to Ibadan from Lagos.
The kidnappers in military uniform, who laid siege to Dominica University area on the expressway, abducted an unspecified numbers of people.
One of the relations of the lecturer, who pleaded anonymity, said that the kidnappers had contacted the family, demanding N50 million ransom.
Commenting, Oyo police spokesman, SP Adewale Osifeso, said that the operatives of the Command attached to toll-gate got information about the sporadic gunshots around the university’s end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Osifeso said that the Command responded swiftly to the incident with deployment of anti-crime patrol operatives, tactical teams, police mobile men and local hunters led by the divisional police officer to rescue the abductees.
According to him, during the process, an officer attached to the Command died with one other badly injured and presently responding to treatment.
He said: “So far, expended ammunition shells and four abandoned vehicles were retrieved at the scene.
“Furthermore, the Commissioner of Police, Adebowale Williams, has ordered full-scale scientific and technological aided investigations to unravel the events that led to the incident with the Deputy Commissioner in charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department leading the charge.”
Osifeso, however, called on residents within and outside the area to immediately notify the police whenever they see any gunshot victim and any other strange occurrence.
Agbaje was the deputy vice-chancellor in charge of academic matters between 2006 and 2010 at UI.
