The Manager of Navo Pharmacy on Ogundele Street, Oko Oba, Orile Agege, Lagos State, has shared how local residents prevented the abduction of his boss by armed men on Monday night.

Residents Foil Abduction of Lagos Businessman at Pharmacy – Manager

PUNCH reports that chaos erupted when four men armed with guns and cutlasses attempted to kidnap the store owner, Samuel Oshanugor, after robbing the pharmacy. They tried to force Oshanugor into his car, but the vehicle got stuck on a rough patch of the road.

James Alade, a local resident who witnessed the event, recounted, “The gunmen arrived on bikes, entered the pharmacy around 10 pm, and stole cash and phones. They then dragged the owner to his car parked outside, but the tyres got stuck in a bad spot on the road when they tried to drive away.”

Lawrence Olawale, the pharmacy manager, said he was heading home when he received a call about the robbery. He rushed back and raised the alarm with other residents.

“When I got close, I saw them reversing the car forcefully. They warned me that if I came closer, they would shoot. I stepped back and screamed for help, and the street was already alert. Everyone started shouting ‘Thief!’ Two of them had guns, and the others held cutlasses,” Olawale said.

Olawale continued, “When the Acura got stuck, they couldn’t drive it out. People started closing in on them, but we couldn’t get too close because of their weapons. We began throwing stones and bottles. Three of them fled, but the fourth, who was monitoring the crowd, was overpowered by the men in the area.”

He added that the three other assailants climbed a fence and escaped. “They took all the money we made and my boss’s three phones. It was an attempted kidnapping,” Olawale said

Bello Ahmed, an official of the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps, described how he and others helped capture one of the suspects. Ahmed said they were relaxing when a suspicious man ran past them barefooted.

“The suspect tried to mislead us by claiming robbers had raided the pharmacy and hijacked the Okada he boarded. Out of curiosity, we grabbed him and took him to the scene. The CCTV confirmed he was one of the robbers, and he confessed,” Ahmed explained.

The police are currently investigating the incident. The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, has not responded to calls and messages. However, Station Officer Ofem Bassey of Abattoir Police Station said, “We are still investigating. We aim to catch the fleeing suspects. The case will be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department at Panti. We have intensified patrols in the area.”

In a related incident in June, the Lagos State Police Command rescued the Fouani brothers and two others who were abducted by gunmen. Hundeyin stated that Abbas Fouani, Youssef Fouani, and Amtal Fouani, abducted on June 14 around 6 pm in Lagos, were rescued days later by the Marine Police in Orugbo Iddo.

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