The Oyo State Police Command on Sunday confirmed the arrest of four suspects as well as the killing of two others during a rescue operation involving the sister of a 2027 governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress in the state, Bayo Adelabu, and her two children in Ibadan.
Firearms, including a pump-action gun, were also recovered during the Saturday night operation, which lasted for several hours at the Ayegun area of Oluyole Local Government Area of the state. The abductees were smoked out of a three-bedroom bungalow where they were being held.
Conducting journalists round the scene in Ibadan on Sunday, the state Commissioner of Police, Oluwagbemiga Abimbola, said the police acted on a tip-off, which eventually resulted in the rescue of the victims.
It was further gathered that there was a shootout during the operation in which two of the suspects were killed in a midnight raid. Aside from the four suspects arrested, other suspects escaped with bullet wounds.
Busayo Adegoke John-Paul, the younger sister of Adelabu, and her twin children were abducted by gunmen in the early hours of Wednesday in Ibadan. John-Paul was kidnapped alongside her 12-year-old twin sons at Elewura-Challenge in Ibadan South-West Local Government Area of the state.
The abduction was carried out by armed attackers who were said to have trailed the vehicle conveying the victims from their home before flagging them down at about 7:30 a.m. at the scene of the incident.
The successful rescue operation came days after the family raised an alarm over the abduction, which added to growing concerns over rising insecurity in Oyo State following the earlier kidnapping of over 40 schoolchildren and teachers in Oriire Local Government Area.
