Suspected Fulani herdsmen kidnap Methodist Church minister and two others in Osun State

ARMED hoodlums suspected to be Fulani herdsmen have kidnapped Methodist Presbyterian minister Reverend Kayode Akande and two other church leaders along the Iwo-Oshogbo Road in Osun State.

Earlier today, the armed men abducted Reverend Akande. one Mr Bankole, who is an engineer and one of the leaders of the church and one Mr Omodunbi. They were in the company of several other church members on their way back from a meeting held at Ile Ogbo when the criminals stopped their vehicles and took them away.

One church leader said:  "They were returning to Oshogbo from Ile Ogbo when suspected Fulani herdsmen abducted them. They went for a meeting in respect of Father’s Day and they were on their way back to Oshogbo when the incident happened.

"The criminals released others and the two cars in which they were travelling and took away the three of them. Osun State police commissioner Fimihan Adeoye, was immediately contacted and he acted promptly.

"In fact, policemen have been deployed to the road immediately and they have been combing the bushes and I just pray they would get these people quickly. We are all praying to God  so that these hoodlums would not  harm these people," the church member added.

Reverend Amos Ogunrinde the bishop of the Methodist Church, Oshogbo Diocese,  added: “I think these people are not genuine herders but criminals. I don’t think they are those herdsmen killing but they are armed robbers and that was why they didn’t kill them but took them away.

“They were eight coming together, the criminals took away three of them and released five of them. They have not got in touch with the families of the three persons as I just returned from the wife of one of the victims now and I was not told of anything like that.”