No fewer than four hostages and a solider have been killed in a kidnapping incident in Magbon Village, Mowe area of Obafemi-Owode Local Government in Ogun State in which Chinese expatriates were targeted.
Earlier, it had reported that suspected kidnapper gunmen invaded the popular dredging site known as Capo in the early hours of Monday.
Eyewitnesses say one of the soldiers protecting the people was killed, while another was shot and wounded.
During the bush-combing exercise, a local hunter supporting the operation lost his life in an encounter with the fleeing criminals, it was learnt.
The incident was confirmed in a statement on Tuesday by the Assistant Director Army Public Relations 35 Artillery Brigade, Idereghi Akari, who said the troops in conjunction with the Nigerian Police responded to the distress call at a dredging site where expatriate workers were engaged in operations.
Akari said that the attackers were met with a fierce exchange of fire, in which one of the attackers was taken out, while the others reportedly fled the mission and withdrew through forest terrain surrounding the area toward the Ogun River.
The kidnappers allegedly took five hostages as human shields to evade pursuit by a Quick Response Force deployed as reinforcement, the statement said.
He said four of the hostages were killed by the fleeing attackers before they fled through the river channel in a boat with one hostage who escaped, who described how the assailants took the body of their dead colleague with them.
Part of the statement reads, “The incident happened on Monday, June 8, 2026, when the joint security patrol was ambushed by armed men suspected to be kidnappers while responding to a distress call at a dredging site where the expatriate workers were engaged in operations.
“A fierce exchange of fire took place, during which one of the attackers was neutralized. The rest of the attackers were said to have abandoned their mission and fled into the nearby forest towards the Ogun River, taking five hostages as human shields to prevent being pursued by a Quick Response Force which came as reinforcement.
The fleeing attackers then killed the four hostages and escaped via the river channel in a boat.”
The army also confirmed that one soldier was killed in the encounter and another soldier and two police officers were injured in the gunfight.
He added that the deceased soldier and the recovered bodies of the four victims have been deposited at the mortuary of the General Hospital, Sagamu, while the injured personnel are receiving medical attention.
“Since the incident, the Quick Response Force and other security agencies have increased patrols and surveillance in the area to restore calm and prevent further security breaches,” the statement added.
The military, according to Major Akari, remained committed to protecting lives and property, assuring residents that operations in the Mowe axis would continue until the fleeing assailants were captured.
