The farmers were at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, CRIN for their nursery seedlings ahead of the planting season. Neither the visiting farmers nor their hosts, the staff of the institute, expected the rude experience awaiting them, as gunmen ambushed the vehicle conveying the farmers on Thursday March 18, 2026, shot sporadically into the air and overwhelmed the harmless farmers. One of the farmers, who escaped, said the gunmen, who he claimed obviously appeared like Fulani, surrounded them.
The five farmers were representatives of the Farmers Association of Nigeria, Ogun State branch.
Nothing prepared them or the officials at the institute that they could be objects of a kidnap operation. The Idi-Ayure location of the institute may not be in the heart of Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State, but its location is not totally in the jungle for it to create the fear of vulnerability to such a criminal activity.
But the kidnappers did not get a success story, at least not fully.
A prompt response to the distress report led to the rescue of two of the farmers. Though, as at the time of this report, at least about two others are still with some of the kidnappers in the forest to which the Oyo State Police Command and other security outfits, including the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, local vigilante and Amotekun have been deployed.
Already, three of the suspected kidnappers are in police custody, helping the security with investigation, while the combined team of security agencies are combing the forest for the other kidnapped farmers and the remaining kidnappers. With the success recorded so far the police are confident that the other victims will soon be rescued and the criminals will be arrested too.
DSP Ayanlade Olayinka, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO for the command said, “Intensive efforts are ongoing to rescue the remaining victim(s), as security operatives have commenced aggressive bush combing operations and sustained pursuit of the fleeing criminals.”
He, therefore, assured that the state security system remains fully prepared to protect the populace. The PPRO pleaded with the people to “cooperate with security agencies by providing credible information that could aid ongoing operations.”
