Abduction on Wedding Day: Bridegroom Returns From Kidnappers Den Five Days After

Men of Kwara State Police Command have commenced investigation into the abduction of  a  35-year- old petrol attendant who was kidnapped during his wedding ceremony and found five days after. The reason behind the abduction on his wedding day has remained a daunting task for the police and mystery to the family of the groom.

But the spokesman for the state  police command, Mr Femi Elubode, said though he had  received many calls on the incident,  A Division Police Station, Challenge, Ilorin where the incident was said to have been reported, had  not briefed his office.
”And if we are not officially briefed, it will be difficult to know the level of investigation into the incident.I have not been briefed yet,” Elubode said.

Sunday VANGUARD  gathered that the two-day wedding  between the victim,  Zubair Aliyu Balogun, and his heartrob had commenced on Thursday, September 27, only for him to disappear Friday morning and his whereabouts remained unknown for five days. The  groom was  found naked by an Okada  rider in a bush at Kangu-Olunlade village Ilorin where he was purportedly dumped by his abductors  Tuesday, October 2, drenched in early morning rain and was shivering. Zubair, who was said to have begged the Okada  man to call members of his family, was then taken to a private hospital.

The victim has since been  hospitalised. Contacted, head of Balogun-Fulani family where the groom hails from, Alhaji Mahmud Durosinlorun Atiku Fulani, said there was no suspicion prior to the abduction, vowing that the family would use all legal and spiritual means to get to the root  of the matter and fish out the perpetrators.

”The marriage plan started  on  Thursday with traditional Wolimat Al-Quran. The  event was done at the bride’s place. It went  well as the groom  recited the Quran to the admiration of everyone present”, the family head told Sunday Vanguard, last week.

He narrated further: “Things went on normally. No one suspected anything. On Friday, wedding day, Zubair woke up in  his rented house at Sango area at about 7.00 a.m., according to people who saw him, thinking he was going to prepare for the wedding Nikkah.

”When the activity was to start, we expected him from 9.a.m. till 11 a.m.. We did not see him. I then called the family head of the bride to inform him that we could not see the groom. Interestingly, Zubair’s bride was not the only one to be wedded that day. There were two other couples  too making three of them that day. So, in order not to disrupt the activity, we improvised that the victim’s younger brother should stand in for him pending his arrival that never was. The waiting continued till the evening. We didn’t see him.

”At about 9 p.m. that Friday, one of his brothers got through to him on phone, but his voice was barely audible  he was incoherent. I picked up my phone too to talk with him. I could hear his voice, though not clearly. It was like the phone was with somebody or he was  taking permission and the permission was not granted.

This went on  throughout the night.”When it was about 11 p.m., I sent  a search party because we got some hint  from him about  his location. He had called one of his aunts. The aunt sent somebody to meet me that the victim had said that he was around Michael Imoudu National Institute of Labour Studies (MINILS), at Olunlade, Ilorin. So, I arranged  a vehicle with two women and three men. When they got there, they found nobody.

They decided to go different ways around places like Sapati-Ile and Afon to look for him combing everywhere. All to no avail. ”Meanwhile, two of the men that stayed at MINILS junction got a phone call from an  unknown person saying, ‘Tunji (one of the members of the search party), if  you don’t leave that place, you will blame yourself for what  will befall you’.

They got afraid.  Some of them left the area immediately in taxi and came home. Some stayed till 2 a.m. while others took refuge in the village. Apparently, some people were watching the search party. We couldn’t sleep.

”On Saturday, his line was no longer going through. We could not contact him until Tuesday morning when we were called to come for him where he was  found by the Okada rider in the bush shivering."

Source: VANGUARD