Father of two abducted children in Ilorin recounts ordeal

Lukman Aliyu, father of two abducted children in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, has recounted his traumatic ordeal in the hands of the armed kidnappers who invaded his residence on 13th October, 2022.

In the BBC video clip of the account, Lukman said the kidnappers gave his two abducted children N500 each to buy soap to wash their clothes after their release.

They also collected N5m ransom, packages of milk, fearless drink, Goldberg beer and assorted recharge cards before setting the two abducted children free.

The invasion of Lukman Aliyu’s family residence occurred at Alagbado area, Okelele Quarters of Ilorin metropolis.

In the account relayed by BBC, Lukman said “I was attacked at my Alagbado residence and my two children abducted at gunpoint at about 12 midnight on the fateful day.

“My wife told one of my children to wake me up to put off the generator and as I finished putting off the generator, and about to go back to my bedroom, my wife came to alert me that she suspected some strange movements of people around the house.

“I then went out to check but could not find anyone, by the time I went back into my room, I observed that the window of my room was being pulled down with the burglary proof already destroyed.

“I then shouted for help but the sporadic gunshots by the armed kidnappers scared our neighbours from coming to the rescue.

“The back door to the house was sprayed with bullets and I jammed the door leading to my bedroom and hid my wife and children in another room for safety,” he added.

Lukman, said the armed kidnappers, later succeeded in cutting the lower part of the door with a machete to gain access into the building amid sporadic gunshots.

He said when they eventually entered the house, and stormed the room where he had hidden the wife and children, they requested for him but assumed he had died in the sporadic gunshots.

Lukman revealed that the kidnappers seized the key to his bedroom from the wife after hitting her on the chest, entered his room and stole the money they found as well as his wife’s money, phone, loaves of bread, drinks, two phones of his abducted children, and phones of neighbours who came to recharge in the house.

The distraught father said the following day of the attack, people called his phone number but the kidnappers failed to respond.

He said the kidnappers later called his friend’s phone number to enquire about the people close to him from his abducted children and one Alhaji Ladi was reached.

Lukman said the kidnappers told Alhaji Ladi to come with a ransom of N20m for the freedom of the two abducted children or risk losing them.

“The kidnappers said they were demanding the amount because they had never wasted the number of bullets expended in that operation before,” Lukman revealed.

He said they further requested for someone who was fluent in Hausa language to communicate and negotiate on his behalf to reduce the N20m ransom demanded.

“I sold my Toyota Camry car for N1.8m and mortgaged my house to meet the demand of the kidnappers which was scaled down to N5m to rescue my two abducted children,” Lukman lamented.

He said one other victim of a similar attack very close to his house lost his first son.

Lukman said seven days after the attack, his house was also invaded by armed kidnappers.

He further recounted that on the night of the attack on his family, police operatives visited his residence, conducted a search on the house and recovered bullet shells, and a knife which dropped from the hands of the kidnappers.

“But since then, I have not heard anything from the police even after I went to show them the two abducted children after their release by the kidnappers,” he said.

He appealed to the State government to come to his assistance to enable him recover and go back to his legitimate business.

The spokesman of the State Police Command, Okasanmi Ajayi, in the viral video by the BBC, said he was not aware of the incident.

Also, efforts made by DAILY POST to obtain a reaction from him proved futile as he did not respond to a text message sent to him.