By John Odunayo
The Police in Ekiti State on Wednesday confirmed that the former Deputy Vice Chancellor of Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Prof. Olorunfemi Olaofe, who was kidnapped on July 9 had been found dead.
It cannot be confirmed yet whether the 79-year-old retired university teacher died as a result of weakness due to age or that he was killed by the kidnappers, said that he was found buried in a shallow grave in the bush.
The retired don was kidnapped in his house alongside his security guard on July 9, over three weeks ago and driven away in his car which the police said they recovered days after the kidnap incident.
Sources said that the kidnappers initially demanded N50m ransom and later stopped communicating.
The Commissioner of Police, Ekiti State Command, Mr Adeniran Akinwale, who confirmed Olaofe’s death, said, “Yes, the professor has been found dead and we are doing everything possible to exhume the body for burial.
“However, we have arrested so many people and you know the circumstances surrounding the incident and we suspected insiders’ work in which the security man employed by the professor was the one who planned it.
“They (abductors) kidnapped the man with him so that we will not suspect. In the process of rescuing him, we have arrested some people. I can’t say much about the security guard, but at the appropriate time, we will brief the public,” the police commissioner said.
While the search for the former university teacher lasted, members of Are Ekiti Progressives Union; Ekiti Council of Elders; and Nigerian Universities Pensioners’ Association, EKSU Branch, had called on the security agencies and the state government to intensify efforts to rescue the old man alive.
