A freelance journalist, Oluwatosin Oshibanjo, who was recently abducted by some unidentified gunmen in his Ijebu home in the Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area of Ogun State, has been found.
Oluwatosin’s mother, Tokunbo Bakre, confirmed to our correspondent in a telephone conversation over the weekend that he was found unconscious by some motorcyclists in the Ijebu-Ode area of the state.
PUNCH Metro reported on Thursday that Bakre disclosed that the abduction came after Oluwatosin intervened in a human rights violation case involving a lady and a pastor.
Bakre had told our correspondent in a telephone conversation that the said lady had accused the pastor of allegedly impregnating her and forcing her to carry out abortions several times. She had refused the last attempt to coerce her into it.
The lady was said to have been delivered of a baby, which she claimed the pastor was responsible for, but the pastor reportedly denied responsibility.
Confirming that Oluwatosin has been found, Bakre said he was left in a bad and unconscious state by the abductors.
“We have seen him. I was called by some Hausa guys who said they saw him by the roadside. I went there and found him naked and unconscious. He is currently in hospital,” Bakre said.
In a telephone conversation with PUNCH Metro on Sunday, Oluwatosin narrated his experience in the hands of the abductors, stressing that he was brutalised, tortured, and dumped by the roadside.
He explained that the abductors released him when they learnt he had been declared missing and that the police were on their trail.
Oluwatosin noted that the abductors claimed not to be kidnappers but cultists and were allegedly engaged by someone displeased with his work.
He narrated, “I was on a call with my wife on Tuesday morning when I heard a knock on the door. Upon opening the door, two guys were trying to force themselves in, and I asked them who they were, but they brought out a gun and marched me out to their car, a red Big Daddy Toyota, with another two guys seated inside.
“They drove towards Ososa Road, and they were arguing that this was TMC. At a point, they made a U-turn back to Ijebu-Ode, blindfolded me, made two left turns, and dragged me into a house.
“They kept discussing, pulled off my shorts, poured water on me, sellotaped my mouth, and tightened the blindfold. They hit me on the leg, and my legs became heavy. They dragged me inside a vehicle.”
He added that after a while, he became unconscious, and when he woke up, he heard them discussing that the matter had escalated and that their work was about to get them into trouble.
Oluwatosin noted that he was taken to a tiled room where the abductors said they were not kidnappers but cultists. He stressed that despite his pleas for food, they refused to feed him.
“I was dragged into a car but sensed it was different from the one they used to pick me up on Tuesday. They kept driving and driving before they suddenly stopped, removed the blindfold, and pushed me to the ground naked.
“I managed to call for help but couldn’t, so I started crawling until a bike man stopped and only removed the sellotape from my mouth and left. I got to a group of people, but their voices sounded like Hausa. One of them covered me with clothes and asked whom I knew. I told him my mum and gave him her phone number. I remember vividly seeing my mum before I later found myself in the hospital.”
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, could not be reached for comments on the incident, as calls and messages to her line were yet to be responded to at the time of filing this report.
