At just 26 years old, Gbolahan Olaniyi had been working as the manager of a farm operated by YSJ Limited in Oke Ako, Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State. The farm, reportedly linked to the state governor but managed privately, was bustling with activity during the maize harvesting season on October 23, 2025.
That fateful Thursday morning, Olaniyi was on the farm writing a report for his boss when horror unfolded. One tractor operator had gone to harvest maize with some workers, while another handled cassava. When the maize team delayed, Olaniyi tried calling but couldn’t reach them. He hopped on his bike and rode out to check, only to find the tractor abandoned and pointing oddly toward the bush.
As he approached, he heard the distinctive calls herdsmen use to communicate with their cattle. Before he could react, seven armed men wielding AK-47 rifles sprang from an ambush on both sides. They pointed their guns at his head. In shock, Olaniyi dropped to his knees, hands raised, whispering to himself, “Is this a dream? What’s going on, God?”
The kidnappers seized his handbag, farm records, phone, and the ₦8,000 he carried to pay workers. They bound his hands with rope. Nearby, they dragged out the tractor operator, who had already been shot in the hand. The bandits marched both men through the forest behind the farm, crossing a river and climbing a high hill. There, they paused to roast stolen maize while their leader demanded Olaniyi call his employer.
When Olaniyi informed his boss of the kidnapping, she promised to send police, the army, and even a drone for rescue. The bandit leader immediately rejected that, insisting only on cash. He demanded ₦100 million for Olaniyi and ₦50 million for the operator. The boss initially seemed cooperative but later blocked calls from Olaniyi and the kidnappers.
As days passed, the group of captives grew to 11. Olaniyi reached out to his mother, who began frantic negotiations. His family eventually raised and delivered ₦15 million (with some accounts mentioning a total of around ₦17 million including additional payments), along with supplies: cartons of malt drinks, milk, energy drinks, bags of rice and beans, new phones, clothes, and other items worth about ₦600,000. The handover happened in Egbe, Kogi State, on or around the eighth or ninth day.
Yet freedom did not come. The next morning, the bandit leader told Olaniyi his payment was incomplete and reset the demand to ₦55 million, dismissing the earlier sum. Despite Olaniyi’s pleas that he was merely a labourer and not the farm owner, the beatings and torture intensified. He and the others endured brutal conditions in the wilderness—hunger, exhaustion, and constant fear.
The operator’s boss managed to send ₦2 million. The kidnappers scoffed, calling it “no money,” and in a fit of rage, the leader shot the operator twice—once in the stomach and once in the chest—killing him instantly.
Olaniyi later recounted that moment as the “craziest day” of his life: “I peed on myself. I shivered and couldn’t move. I nearly died.” He and another captive were forced to carry the corpse into a nearby bush before the group relocated, walking for hours to a new site. They remained there until around the 22nd day, when Olaniyi was handed over to another group of captors.
For a total of 42 days, Olaniyi endured the horrors of the forest camp near the Ekiti-Kogi boundary. Conditions were physically and emotionally devastating—exposed to the elements, deprived of basic dignity, and living under the constant threat of death. Even after his family paid a substantial ransom, the kidnappers refused to release him, issuing fresh threats and demands.
Olaniyi eventually escaped with some fellow captives, seizing a chaotic moment during the ordeal. He emerged traumatized but alive, though deeply in debt from the ransom and related costs. “Nigeria isn’t a country,” he later reflected bitterly.
Now jobless and still recovering from the ordeal, Olaniyi’s story highlights the relentless insecurity plaguing rural farms in parts of Ekiti State, where armed groups—often described as suspected herdsmen or bandits—ambush workers, demand exorbitant ransoms, and show little regard for human life. His colleague, identified in some reports as Kazeem, paid the ultimate price.
The survivor’s account serves as a grim reminder of the fear many Nigerians face daily in their pursuit of honest work, and the heavy toll exacted when ransom payments fail to guarantee safety. Olaniyi’s family continues to grapple with the financial ruin left in the wake of the kidnapping.
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