Gunmen Abduct Lagos Varsity Deputy VC..Demand N20m

Gunmen last Monday night abducted the Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC) of Anchor University Lagos, Professor Fatokun Johnson, in Nasarawa State.

Johnson was the dean of the Faculty of Science and Education as well as the head of Department of Mathematical Science and ICT at the Federal University, Dutsin-Ma in Katsina State.

The Nasarawa State Police Command confirmed that gunmen suspected to be kidnappers attacked the university don and kidnapped him at gunpoint to an unknown destination.

The state police command confirmed the incident in a statement signed by the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Ramhan Nansel.

According to Nansel, “Upon receipt of the information, the state Commissioner of Police, Bola Longe, mobilised a search-and-rescue team comprising the Police Mobile Force, anti-kidnapping team, the military, police patrol teams, local vigilante and hunters to the area to rescue the abducted victim and arrest the perpetrators of the dastardly act.”

However, a survivor from the kidnap, who spoke to journalists, narrated that the professor of mathematical science was last Monday abducted by unknown gunmen on Akwanga-Keffi highway.

He said the professor, who was driving from Jos towards Keffi in Nasarawa State at about 9:00p.m. last Monday was ambushed by some group of armed men.

The source said: “As we were approaching Garaku in Kokona Local Government Area, some people started shooting sporadically behind us.

The professor, who was driving, decided to increase his speed only to meet another group who were also shot at us.

So we had no other option than to stop the vehicle.

“When we stopped, they ordered us into the bush and started speaking Hausa dialect, and when I told them that I don’t understand Hausa language, one of the abductors cocked the gun and would have shot me but ran out of bullet.

The survivor narrated further that when the abductor discovered that he had no bullet, he brought out a knife and wanted to stab him, but he narrowly escaped and hid in a drainage system.