Kidnappers tie polytechnic lecturer to tree, kill him over failure to provide ransom
A lecturer at the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, has been gruesomely murdered by kidnappers who took him and three others on the Akure-Owo Expressway at Amurin Village in Owo last Tuesday.
Taiwo Akinyemi was tied to a tree and tortured to death, just as family and friends rallied to gather the N550,000 ransom his kidnappers demanded.
The suspects. after taking Akinyemi and three members of staff of the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, demanded N100 million.
Two days later, they reduced the ransom for Akinyemi to N7 million but grudgingly accepted to collect half a million Naira sum after a dragged out negotiation. The lecturer’s remains was found in the bush on Sunday.
“The money was taken to them and the person who took the money was directed by the kidnappers where he should drop the money,” Chris Olowolade, the Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnic, RUGIPO chapter, said.
“They asked him to stop, reverse and move just to confirm if he was the actual person bringing the money. But after some hours they called that the man bringing the money should come back that they didn’t see the money, only to be called by the Rector yesterday to go and identify a corpse.
“We rushed to the morgue and discovered it was his (Akinyemi) corpse. He was tied to a tree with his clothes and left his remains in the bush. The body was recovered by the police and deposited at the morgue, it showed he was badly maltreated before he was killed.”
The other three abductees have regained freedom.
Students and lecturers held a procession to honour the 52-year-old on the school’s campus.
State governor Rotimi Akeredolu during his visit to the school said it was unfortunate that all attempts to rescue the deceased was unsuccessful.
Police say a search for the culprits is ongoing.
