From Layi Olanrewaju,Ilorin
Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kwara State, Ishola Balogun Fulani who was kidnapped by suspected gunmen on Friday alongside the party’s Secretary, Chief Sunday Bode Adekanye said ransom was paid before they were released.
Balogun-Fulani toldnewsmen at the palace of the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, after a visit of appreciation to the monarch, that the gunmen demanded N40 million and N30 million from him and his secretary.
He said all efforts by security operatives sent by Commissioners of Police in Kogi and Niger states and even the deployment of a helicopter by Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase yielded no result while they were held in the bush.
He also said they trekked for about 10 hours from 7:30am to 4:00pm in the forest without food or water.
Daily Sun gathered that the abductors demanded the phone numbers of President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed to negotiate with them. Recounting their ordeal, Balogun-Fulani said “we had nothing as food or water while we were in our abductors den. They said they were Fulanis and that they had no other business than armed robbery and kidnapping.
“They spoke Fulani and Pidgin English fluently. They said we must find money for them and demanded N40 million and N30 million from me and the secretary and that if we failed to do that, they were going to waste us.
“We had to call our people; we don’t know what they did but I think they must have paid a certain amount before we were allowed to go (on Saturday) by 6:30pm.
“They tried to enquire whether I am a Fulani man too to which I said yes but they said this is not a family matter but strictly business.
“We were not tortured and nothing was done to us but we trekked from one hideout to another,” said.
we trekked until the morning of our release.
We warned our people not to bring any security men either police or the army because they warned us and threatened to kill us if we do they said they were not afraid of police or army and that they have their own weapon too.
“They Police IG tried, he sent a helicopter to come looking for us but it was difficult to locate us because inside very thick forest. Same with the Commissioners of Police in Kogi and Kwara state who also sent in people yet we were unable to be located.It was when we came out that we saw about 100 police waiting for us. The place is around Osara and Okene”he recalled.
He called on the Federal Government to beef up security in all our roads and disallow the Fulani from using guns to rear their cattle or carry gun about in town and villages, adding that this will go a long way to curb their excesses in gun usage.
Also speaking,the secretary of the party, Chief Olabode Adekanye who also narrated how the incident happened added another man who said he was from Ondo State was kidnapped with them by the Fulani gunmen who were smoking cocaine in the den in the bush.
Adekanye said “We first thought they were SARS because they wore no uniform. But immediate we got closer we saw some of them, about four in number, crawling on the road.
Then we immediately made U-turn but were ambushed by four men from rear and they fired we stopped.
“They were asking for money and then told us to be running inside the bush with gun pointed to my head.
“After a while they relaxed and communicated in their language before they ordered us to proceed again.
“At a time they said we are kidnappers and we are the ones killing Fulanis which we denied together with the third guy and they wanted to shoot. We started to walk from 7:30am until 4:00pm before we stopped at a station inside the forest. There was no traces of persons or any movable objects like cars or machines and no bush path. They declared this is their office.
“Later,they cooked rice with ordinary oil and offered it to us inside one dirty black pot if we cared. Then we asked for water thinking we could get pure water but they just went somewhere and fetch water from a mud pond with earth color. That was what they drank and ate and they smoked and constantly snuff cocaine,It was later in the evening that they now asked us to identify ourself.