{"id":193521,"date":"2026-02-04T16:08:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/gunmen-abduct-nine-family-members-in-edo"},"modified":"2026-02-04T17:15:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:15:01","slug":"gunmen-abduct-nine-family-members-in-edo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-abduct-nine-family-members-in-edo","title":{"rendered":"Gunmen abduct nine family members in Edo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have abducted nine family members in Edo State.<\/p>\n<p>the victims include five school children, a nursing mother and her baby, and two others.<\/p>\n<p>The father of the victims, who identified himself as Mr Festus Bamidele, said they were abducted on Monday, February 2, 2026, at about 5:00 pm while returning from school.<\/p>\n<p>Bamidele said the abductors, however, released the nursing mother and the baby after the rainfall that fell on the fateful day.<\/p>\n<p>He said the family became aware of the incident when the nursing mother and the baby got home.<\/p>\n<p>He said through the assistance of the leadership of vigilante and Mobil Police at Evboneka community, three other victims who are in pre-kindergaten classes were rescued.<\/p>\n<p>He said the incident happened between Eko-Abeku-Iyowa road, within Evboneka community, along the Benin-Akure road.<\/p>\n<p>Bamidele explained that four others, who are between the ages of 11 and 26 years, are still being held captive by the kidnappers.<\/p>\n<p>Among those still being held by the kidnappers are his children, junior sister and a sister-in-law.<\/p>\n<p>He said the kidnappers have contacted the family and are demanding the sum of N260 million ransom.<\/p>\n<p>Bamidele appealed to security agencies and the state government to come to his aid by ensuring that the victims are rescued unhurt.<\/p>\n<p>He equally appealed to the kidnappers to kindly release the victims as the sum of N260 million is impossible for him to raise.<\/p>\n<p>When contacted the Edo State Police Command confirmed the incident.<\/p>\n<p>The Public Relations Officer of the Command, ASP Eno Ikoedem, who confirmed the incident, said operatives of Ekiadolor Division engaged the suspects in a gun duel and successfully rescued five of the victims unhurt while four persons were taken away.<\/p>\n<p>According to her, on 2\/2\/2026 at about 1800hrs, during a bush clearance operation at Iyowa Bush along the Eko-Abeku\u2013Iyowa\u2013Akure Road, suspected kidnappers attacked a family of nine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPolice operatives of Ekiadolor Division at Nipping point along the express engaged the suspects in a gun duel, successfully rescuing five victims unhurt, while four persons were taken away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe command in collaboration with hunters and vigilantes, has launched an intensive bush combing exercise for the kidnappers with efforts ongoing to rescue the remaining victims,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have abducted nine family members in Edo State. the victims include five school children, a nursing mother and her baby, and two others. The father of the victims, who identified himself as Mr Festus Bamidele, said they were abducted on Monday, February 2, 2026, at about 5:00 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":193520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-193521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Gunmen abduct nine family members in Edo - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have abducted nine family members in Edo State. the victims include five school child ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-abduct-nine-family-members-in-edo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gunmen abduct nine family members in Edo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have abducted nine family members in Edo State. the victims include five school child ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-abduct-nine-family-members-in-edo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-04T15:08:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-04T16:15:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1770221647.511995.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"704\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-abduct-nine-family-members-in-edo#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-abduct-nine-family-members-in-edo\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Gunmen abduct nine family members in Edo\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-04T15:08:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-04T16:15:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-abduct-nine-family-members-in-edo\"},\"wordCount\":387,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-abduct-nine-family-members-in-edo#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1770221647.511995.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-abduct-nine-family-members-in-edo#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-abduct-nine-family-members-in-edo\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-abduct-nine-family-members-in-edo\",\"name\":\"Gunmen abduct nine family members in Edo - 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