IBADAN – Abductors of the chairman of the Academic Staff of Polytechnics (ASUP) of the Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igbo Ora, Mr. Opadijo Oluyide and four others have demanded a N500 million ransom.
The ASUP chairman, the secretary, Mr. Gbenga Alayande, and three others, were on Thursday evening kidnapped along Iseyin-Igbo Ora Road on their way from a meeting of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of unions in all the six Oyo State-owned tertiary institutions, held at the Oke-Ogun Polytechnic, Saki.
A key member of the JAC, who spoke with reporters on Saturday, informed that the kidnappers called on Friday morning and demanded a ransom of N500 million.
The JAC member who did not want his name mentioned added that since the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Shina Olukolu, had taken over the matter and was personally in Igbo Ora to monitor the situation, JAC would not want to give out more information about the incident.
JAC was formed in 2017 by all the staff unions in the six Oyo State-owned tertiary institutions following the reduction of subventions for the institutions to 25 percent by the administration of former Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
Sunday Independent gathered that the Thursday’s JAC meeting in Saki was called to discuss the modalities on how the incumbent administration of Governor Seyi Makinde would pay the outstanding salaries arrears being owed workers in the Oyo tertiary institutions, ranging from six to 18 months.
A source at the Oke-Ogun Polytechnic, Saki, informed that the meeting ended by 4.pm on Thursday, and as delegates from different institutions began to depart for their various destinations, it was discovered the Toyota Sienna bus that conveyed the Igbo Ora people was faulty.
The source said: “The Igbo Ora people said they would manage to return to their station with the vehicle. They left Saki around 4.30pm.
We learnt the vehicle was giving them problem on the road, but they were managing themselves. They even had a stopover at Iseyin to pick a wife to one of the delegates.
“After leaving Iseyin around 7.pm, we were told that the car eventually broke down along Iseyin-Maya-Igbo Ora road. By that time it was around 8.pm, and they were close to Igbo Ora already. So, they called one of their people in Igbo Ora to come with another vehicle to convey them.”
