The three people abducted on Sunday while returning from Egungun Masquerade festival in Aiyedayo, MopAmuro Local Government Area of Kogi State have been released. They spent four days in captivity.
It was gathered that the victims were set free on Wednesday after family members rallied round to pay N140,000 as ransome.
t was gathered that the victims, made up of two men and a woman, were on their way back to Iyah-Gbede in Ijumu LGA after participating in the annual Epa festival in Aiyedayo when they met their gun-carrying Fulani assailants.
A source conversant with the matter claimed two other people narrowly escaped abduction while the three, all indigens of Ijumu, were said to be on a motorcycle when the gunmen laid ambush at a bad spot, and led them into the bush.
The gunmen subsequently made contact and set N500,000 condition for their freedom. After days of intense negotiation, they agreed to reduce the amount, which the families were eventually able to mobilise.
Harassments by criminal Fulani are becoming rampant in Kog West. The invading band have forced the largely agrarian Okun people to abandoned their farms, and thereby causing unprecedented food scarcity in the area.