By Olayemi Esan
Residents of Ado and lkere-Ekiti, on Wednesday protested kidnapping of four persons by gunmen which took place on Tuesday in some communities in the state.
Residents said criminals carried out the activities at Goshen Land community in Ajebamidele area of Ado-Ekiti along the Ikere-Ekiti road.
In August, gunmen attacked some travellers between Ewu-Ekiti and Aiyetoro-Ekiti, killing one person and abducting two others.
A month prior, gunmen abducted four farmers in Ikosu-Ekiti in Moba Local Government Area of the state, demanding a N50m ransom.
The recent kidnap incident involved a married couple, and a man said to be a pastor was among the kidnapped victims.
The wife was said to have been trailed to her residence by the kidnappers who were armed with AK-47 rifles.
The husband who went to rescue his wife was also abducted.
The angry residents trooped out in the early hours of Wednesday to barricade the highway, lamenting that kidnapping was becoming incessant in Ekiti.
Chairman of Goshen Landlords Association, Samuel Fasua said the protest was staged to draw the attention of government to the incident.
Another resident, Emmanuel Ayodeji said his sister-in-law was among those kidnapped.
He said the abductors had called the family to demand a ransom of N10 million.
According to reports, while the protest lasted, there were long queues of vehicles on both sides of the Ado-Ekiti-Ikere highway with police officers appealing to the residents to allow a free flow of traffic.
The road was however reopened at about 10.05am after the police succeeded in convincing the protesters to allow traffic to resume.