Metro
Gunmen abduct retired senior Air Force officer in Lagos
A retired senior military officer, Air Vice Marshal Sikiru Smith, has been reportedly abducted by masked gunmen in the Ajah area of Lagos State.
Smith, a cousin of former Inspector-General of Police and current Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Musiliu Smith. was said to have been kidnapped on Monday.
The retired officer, who is the Chairman of Double Wealth Ventures Limited, a dredging and engineering firm, was supervising work on a dredging site when the heavily armed gunmen invaded the place and shot into the air sporadically.
According to an SOS voice note shared by his official driver, Corporal Odiji, the retired AVM had engaged in a struggle with the gunmen before he was subdued and whisked away in a waiting speedboat.
Read also: Gunmen abduct ex-speaker of Akwa Ibom Assembly
“This is an emergency. I am Corporal Odiji attached to Air Vice Marshal Smith. They just abducted him from the site where we were working.
“Some gunmen who were wearing masks just came and snatched my boss now. They shot everywhere. I was near where I was fixing my boss’ vehicle.
“As I was coming, I saw them leaving in a boat but I wasn’t armed so I just ran to the site and I saw his glasses and where he struggled with them. Please pass this information. It is an emergency,” Odiji wrote.
When contacted, the Lagos State Police Command Public Relations Office (PPRO) Adekunle Ajisebutu, who neither confirmed nor denied the incident, promised to make inquiries and make a detailed statement in due course.
Air Force spokesman, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, also promised to make inquiries and provide information on the matter later.
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...