Nigeria police recover remains after kidnapping and torture video call

A video call that showed three women being tortured became the trail police followed through Edo State’s forests, ending with the recovery of two decomposing bodies and the arrest of a wounded suspect. The case began with the abduction of Favour Nosakhare, 66, Annabel Osasere, 28, and Rejoice Otikpere, 26, from their residence in Iyowa Community, Ovia North-East Local Government Area.

Police said the women were seized on May 9, 2026, and taken into a nearby forest. Their kidnappers then contacted relatives by video call, showing the women being flogged and tortured while ransom was demanded. That detail became central to the investigation, giving officers a clearer sense of the gang’s methods and the terrain it was using to hide its victims.

The Edo State Police Command said operatives of the Violent Crime Response Unit, working with the Police Drone Unit, mounted intensive rescue operations and aerial surveillance across forests and suspected hideouts in Ovia North-East and surrounding areas. On May 19, officers tracked the gang to a powerline corridor inside a forest, where the suspects exchanged gunfire with police before fleeing with gunshot injuries. Investigators later recovered a blood-soaked jacket and expended AK-47 ammunition from the scene.

One suspect, Musa Haruna, 23, was later arrested with a gunshot wound. Police said Haruna confessed to taking part in the attack and led officers to a forest in Ogwa Community, where two decomposing bodies were recovered on June 2, 2026. Family members identified one of the bodies as Mrs. Favour Nosakhare. Efforts were still under way to identify the other remains and track down additional members of the gang.

Police described the group as notorious for kidnapping and armed robbery along the Benin-Lagos Road and Old Benin-Akure Road corridors, routes that have become familiar in Edo State’s abduction economy. Commissioner of Police Monday Agbonika said residents must continue to provide timely and credible information to police, as the command leans harder on intelligence-led operations.

That approach has already been producing arrests and rescues. Between March and May 2026, the Edo State Police Command said it arrested 119 suspects and rescued 58 kidnapping victims. In a state where criminals have increasingly retreated into forests and fractured into organized cells, this case ended the same way many others now do: with drones, gunfire, and a body brought back from the bush.