Security forces prevent abductions amid gunmen storming homes in Owo

The Owo community, the headquarters of Owo Local Government Area in Ondo State, was thrown into panic over the weekend when armed men believed to be kidnappers entered the town.

The gunmen, fully armed, stormed the homes of a pastor and a family of four in separate parts of the community in an apparent attempt to abduct the occupants.

At the Ojana axis, six armed men entered Pastor Taiwo’s house—who is also the chairman of the community—around 7:00 pm and tried to take him away.

When the pastor’s family sounded the alarm, security operatives from B Division, Owo, arrived quickly and halted the abduction after a gunfight with the attackers.

The gunmen fled into a nearby bush, leaving the pastor unharmed, who was then rescued.

Later, at about 11:30 pm, another group of kidnappers entered the home of 39‑year‑old Daniel Ologun in Gbegun community along Alhaja Camp, off Housing Estate, Owo, and shot him in the left leg.

After the shooting, the attackers abducted his 34‑year‑old wife, Taibat, and their two children, aged four and two, and moved them into a nearby bush.

Residents alerted security forces, and police and Nigerian Army personnel pursued the gunmen through the forest.

The victims were rescued unharmed in the early hours of Monday after the kidnappers abandoned them in the bush.

Police spokesperson Abayomi Jimoh confirmed the incidents and said that intensive searches of the surrounding forests had begun to locate the fleeing gunmen.

The PPRO praised the operatives involved in the rescue missions and reassured residents of the command’s commitment to combating kidnapping and other violent crimes across the state.