Troops of the Nigerian Army rescued Adekemi Idowu and her six-month-old child after armed men abducted five members of her family in Egbe, Kogi State, leaving three relatives still missing as the search continues. The woman and her baby were later reunited with their family.
The rescue happened after a late-night attack on Wednesday near Solid Rock School in the Ijalu area of Egbe, where armed men stormed a residence and took away a woman, her infant and three others. By Thursday, the Army had disclosed that troops had moved quickly after a distress call and chased the kidnappers along their withdrawal route with members of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria.
During that pursuit, the kidnappers abandoned Idowu and her child near the Oro axis before fleeing. Hassan Abdullahi, who spoke for the Army, said troops immediately mobilized with vigilantes and launched an operation after the distress report, while the force said it remained committed to protecting lives and property and wanted residents to keep sharing actionable intelligence. The statement did not say where the other three abducted family members had been taken or whether they had been moved again after the ambush.
The unresolved search matters because it leaves one family split between relief and fear. Two people are back home, but three others from the same household are still unaccounted for, and security operatives say they are continuing efforts to rescue the captives and apprehend those responsible. The Army’s latest action also fits a wider push in Kogi, where troops have recently mounted operations after a spate of kidnappings on highways and in communities.
Those operations have already produced other rescues in the state, including 23 kidnapped passengers along the Ayegunle-Bunu Road in Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area and victims taken from the Daarul-Kitab Islamic Orphanage in Zariagi, Lokoja Local Government Area. But the pattern has not broken: on Tuesday, three youths from Plateau State were also reported abducted while travelling through Kogi after returning from Akure, Ondo State, underscoring how mobile the kidnappers remain. For Idowu’s family, Thursday brought one clear answer and one harder question — the mother and baby are safe, but the search for the other three continues.
