GUNMEN have abducted the wife and two children of the lawmaker representing Ipaiye/Malete/Olooru of Moro Local Government in the Kwara State House of Assembly.
The abductors, our correspondent gathered, stormed the residence of the lawmaker around 1am on Monday.
According to a community leader in Shao, “the abductors came in their numbers shooting sporadically before whisking the victims away into the nearby bush”.
“Their whereabouts have remained unknown although one of them who contacted the family was yet to make a demand for ransom, saying he was not with the others in the forest yet to harmonise the agreed price.
“But in the meantime, the lawmaker has been advised to relocate from the town”, the source added.
Calls made to the lawmaker via the telephone on Tuesday were not answered.
But the chairman of the state vigilantes, Alhaji Ibrahim Saka, told our correspondent that “Yes, it’s true and we have dispatched some of our men to comb the forest for their possible rescue”.
When contacted, spokesman of the Kwara state police command, Ajayi Okasanmi, confirmed the incident.
He however said, “Details are still sketchy but I will get back as soon as we have a comprehensive update of the incident”.
This newspaper reports that this is the second time that the lawmaker’s family will fall victims to kidnappers.
In September last year, the wife and a son had also been kidnapped before they were rescued by the police after the payment of an undisclosed amount of ransom.
Okasanmi had said then that two of their abductors were killed inside a forest in Moro while they were sharing ransom.
“The kidnappers were accosted in the bush while sharing the ransom collected from the family of the victims.
“Two of the kidnappers that suffered gunshot injuries during the encounter were arrested and taken to the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) where they were confirmed dead”, he added.