Fresh facts have emerged as to why Prof. Bernice Adegbehinde, the wife of abducted Orthopaedic Surgeon at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Osun State, Prof. Olayinka Oladiran Adegbehinde, was not kidnapped along with her husband last Sunday. Prof. Adegbehinde, a senior lecturer at the university, was released a day after he was abducted.
It was learnt that Bernice, who is the Dean, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, escaped being abducted by the hoodlums because she slumped out of fear when the miscreants swooped on the family.
Rather than waste time trying to revive her, the hoodlums abandoned her and whisked her husband away into the bush.
On regaining consciousness, Bernice reportedly ran to Apomu to make a report to the police about her husband’s abduction. She was also said to have made a call to someone in Ile-Ife, who helped to alert the state’s police command about the incident. She was later treated for shock at an undisclosed private hospital in Ife.
Bernice, her husband and two others were returning from Lagos to Ile-Ife when their car was stopped abruptly by gunmen around the Ikoyi/Apomu stretch of Ibadan-Ife Expressway at about 9.00 pm. They were immediately marched out of the car and taken into a nearby bush.
Narrating his ordeal after he was released around 10.30 pm on Monday and taken into police custody, Adegbehingbe, who was reunited with his family a few hours later, said they ran into the gunmen who were shooting sporadically into the air while motorists and people around were trying to escape.
Everyone reportedly fled after rushing out of their cars but he and his wife were not so lucky because they were very close to the hoodlums at that point. He said he was not hurt by the bandits.
According to him, the negotiation for his release commenced as soon as they settled in the bush. He said the gunmen first demanded N30 million ransom before they eventually settled for N5.045 million mobilised by friends and relations.
Describing the bandits as Fulani, the victim said his abductors were seven in number and bore AK 47 rifles with many rounds of ammunition.
A Consultant Cardiologist at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Rasaq Adebayo, and the Chairman, Osun State chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association, Edward Komolafe, who were among the visitors to the Adegbehingbes at the university’s staff quarters, called on the relevant authorities to beef up security in all the identified flash points across the country.
The area where the OAU lecturer was kidnapped is said to be a very busy axis on the Ibadan/Ife Express way. The area is said to be notorious for criminal activities, but traders and hawkers in the axis feigned ignorance of the presence of hoodlums in the area. They, however, said they got to know of some ugly incidents in the area over the radio.
A lady, who identified herself as Adijat, reluctantly told The Nation that robbery incidents are common on the road.
She said: “When vehicles of people travelling on the road break down, the occupants are always apprehensive because of a notorious spot between Asejire and Ikire towns.
“The services of commercial motorcyclists, otherwise known as okada operators, are often employed by the criminals to execute their heinous crime.”
She said police patrols on the road, particularly at night, are not regular.
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