Clock ticks for house wife as kidnappers demand N5m ransom

Mrs Gbemisola Oluwakemi Basorun was on medication for three days, which ended around 6pm of Tuesday June 30. Though not fully recovered, her zeal to worship and serve God prompted her to attend an evening programme of the Pentecostal Assembly, a branch of the Christ Apostolic Church in Agodo by Odogunyan, Sagamu Local Government of Ogun State.

Gbemisola Oluwakemi Basorun

Though married to a Muslim, she was said to be a prayer warrior and a devoted member of the welfare department of the church. Unfortunately her decision to attend the church programme on that fateful day has thrown her family into despair.

She was  kidnapped and  her Pathfinder SUV with plate number KTU 476 CM taken away at gun point while she and her two children were on their way to home from church.

Since her kidnap about a week ago, her church has been organising prayers round the clock, while neighbours and family members have formed a search party, combing everywhere in search of this graduate of Secretarial Administration.

Abduction of Gbemisola

An indication that the prayers have not been in vain emerged when her car was recovered 24 hours later   at Agbede- Muti by Ita-Oluwo, Ikorodu.    The abduction of Gbemisola  has not only thrown their No 5, Basorun Abimbola Street, Agodo-Alara residence into mourning and travail  but it has also created panic in the entire community as some believe that the kidnapping might have been staged to punish her family. Some others, however, have blamed the development to what they regard as the near-absence of security in the community.

Some church members are particularly intrigued when after last Sunday’s service they dialed and got a response from Gbemisola’s phone which had been  switched off since her  kidnap. They were astonished when  a background voice was heard demanding for a ransom of N200 million to be paid yesterday, Tuesday July 7, 2015 else the victim would be killed.

As at Monday June 6, 2015, Gbemisola’s husband, Abimbola and other family members, were running helter skelter to meet up with the demand which was later reduced to N5m as at 1pm.

Abimbola, a consultant to the Lagos State government, last saw his wife around 8am of the fateful Tuesday. “My wife was  ill for days and her medication was to be completed in the evening after which she would go to church. I was on my way home from work when I got a distress call around 8.15pm, and that was the beginning of our ordeal,” he lamented.

Also, Gbemisola’s immediate younger brother, Osikoya Adewale, told Vanguard Metro, VM his aged parents had not been intimated of the development because they were presently undergoing medical treatment. In the neighbourhood, residents of this border town blamed the development on lack of adequate security in Agodo, claiming that cultists are always on the prowl in the community.

Back to Agbede-Muti, residents claimed a similar incident occured same day when a man was kidnapped on his way to work and his car was also recovered on same spot. They also claimed that due to its porosity and the criminal activities that flourish there, Agbede-Muti has become a place where even angels, including the Police, dread to tread.   Gbemisola’s kidnap has sent jitters down spines of many, especially housewives who now fear to move about the town.

In a chat with VM, Abimbola said he was greatly distressed by the development as his two kids keep asking for the whereabouts of their mother. “ I have tried my best to raise  money to meet the ransom demand but the kidnappers are not ready to entertain stories and I want her life to be spared,’’ he said rather emotionally.

The pastor of the church, Pastor Israel Ariyo, said the church will not relent in prayers until Gbemisola is found. “As you can see (pointing to a group of people), prayers are going on here 24 hours and they will not stop until she is found and brought back alive. The development is so painful to us but we know our God is not asleep,” he noted with faith and conviction.

The 38-year-old native of Ijebu-Ife, Ogun State, was driving home on  that fateful day after the church programme when she noticed through the side mirror that four strange men on a motorcycle were trailing her. The men followed the car up to the gate of their house. And before  Gbemisola’s seven-year-old daughter who had just alighted from the car could open the gate, the men swooped on the car, grabbed her five-year-old son and  flung him out of the car before making away with Gbemisola.