Residents of Igbodu community in the Epe area of Lagos State were in the early hours of Tuesday jolted by a gun duel between some suspected kidnappers and men of the Nigeria Police.
Confirming the incident, a source in the Lagos State Police Command told Channels Television that the suspects opened fire on a team of policemen who were on patrol along the Epe axis, and riddled their vehicle with bullets.
One of the farmers in the area also told Channels Television that the gun battle broke out after some of the kidnap victims escaped when they noticed that six of the gang members had left the camp, leaving only two of them, whom they later overpowered.
On arrival at the camp and learning that their victims had escaped, the gang members reportedly went on rampage, attacking everyone they came across.
The kidnappers had on February 14 abducted five farm assistants and two members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), who were guarding the farmers and requested for five million naira as ransom.
