Insecurity: Terrorists demand drugs, virgins as ransom, says Afenifere

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The pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has condemned the escalating wave of terrorist attacks in south-western Nigeria, urging both federal and state authorities to intensify efforts to rescue the region from banditry.

According to Vanguard Newspaper, in a press release on Saturday, National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Jare Ajayi, highlighted the Yoruba people’s alarm over the near-daily erosion of human life across multiple states.

He drew attention to the barbaric treatment of kidnapped victims, noting the merciless beatings and humiliations endured by abductees.

Ajayi recounted multiple incidents across the region, including attacks on churches, police stations, homes, and highways in Ondo State; sacked communities in Kwara; killings of farmers and assaults on travellers along the Igbeti-Kisi road in Oke-Ogun, Oyo State; and gruesome kidnappings in Ekiti State, where victims were killed and their corpses held for ransom.

On the nature of ransom demands, Ajayi said: “The greatest demonstration of the heartlessness of these evil-doers was their demands of N1.5 million, Indian hemp, cocaine, a synthetic drug known as ICE, and cartons of canned beer for the release of a corpse in their captivity.”

He further revealed: “The kidnappers even hilariously asked for virgins to be brought in exchange for four men that they had previously abducted.”

Ajayi stressed that homes are no longer safe havens. Punch