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We collected N15.1m, says kidnapper
This came as one of those arrested for Oba Oseni’s abduction said they collected N15.1 million ransom. The monarch, who recounted his experience in the hands of his abductors, told our correspondent that, for three weeks, the kidnappers fed him with bread and two sachets of water daily.
He said: “Initially when I was taken to the creek, they were giving me Eba and Ogbono, but suddenly when they negotiated the first ransom with my children and without good bargaining they stopped the food.
Thereafter, they started feeding me with bread and two sachets of water. I was also sleeping on the floor. “But in fairness, they did not maltreat me. However, they were always threatening to kill me if my children refused to bring the money they demanded.
One of them told me that they were sent to kill me but they had a change of heart.” The monarch also said they asked him to cooperate. He added: “I promised to cooperate with them.
But I told them to also treat me gently as their father. I told them that if not that I had undressed and nothing was on my body, they would not have taken me away easily like that.
I even told them to stop smoking Indian hemp near where I was kept but one of them stood up to slap me. “The smoke from the Indian hemp which I inhaled in the creek increased my blood pressure. I almost died in the creek. It was God who took me out of the kidnappers’ den safely.”
Oba Oseni recalled that he was about to take his bath on July 16 when the kidnappers struck. He said: “I heard a loud noise from the living room. When I went to check the cause of the noise, I was held and I was blindfolded and taken away through their speedboat.
My wife was seriously injured and a security guard in the palace was shot dead. “When they were taking me to their waiting boat, they dragged me on the ground. I sustained injuries on my legs and some other parts of my body. It got to a stage I could not bear it anymore and I fainted.
They fetched water from the river and poured it on me to revive me. When we got to the creek, we passed the night somewhere. I was given water to bathe and food. “The following day which is on Sunday, we proceeded on another journey on the water and we finally arrived in another place in the creek where I was taken to a makeshift building in the creek.
On the third day they called my children on the phone. But whenever they and my children did not reach agreement on the ransom, they would vent their anger on me and threaten to kill me if my children did not bring the money to them.
“With the assistance of God, my children were able to raise the first money. They delivered the money somewhere at Agbara area for the abductors, which later created a confusion within their camp. The leader of the gang and some others went away with the money, leaving the junior ones.
“After the gang leader had gone with the first ransom, the junior ones came to me and said they had to renegotiate with my children or else they would lock me up in one of the rooms in the building and leave me there.
Before my children paid the second tranche, they came that night and took away the bed and tore the mosquito net I was sleeping under. That day I could not sleep throughout the night owing to mosquito bites.
“When one of them saw the hardship I went through, he gave me his clothes to cover my body. But others collected the clothes from me and I slept on the floor. Fortunately, in the morning when they came to see me, they gave me phone to speak with my children to bring N100,000 that they were going to release me because of the present economic situation of the country. “It was then I told my children to prepare the money.
Then my children assured them of the money on Thursday. Early on Saturday morning, they blindfolded me. But suddenly that day, they changed their mind. They said they were not going again, because two of them had been arrested by the police. But I persuaded them.
That was how we set out in a speedboat while a small canoe followed us. When we got to the middle of the river, they asked me to go into the canoe. “That was how I started paddling the canoe. When I got to a place at Akesan, I parked somewhere and I prayed to God for guidance.
Thereafter, I proceeded on the journey not knowing that I was on Iba waterways. I got down and started walking on the road. When I asked from some people where I was, I was told it was Iba Expressway. That was how two other boys who knew me in the community started shouting ‘this is oba’.
That was how I reunited with my family members.” Meanwhile, one of the suspects arrested in connection with Oseni’s abduction yesterday narrated how they collected N15.1 million ransom.
This was even as Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State said the kidnappers would face the full wrath of the law. Two of the suspected kidnappers, Toba Forejo and Isaiah Ododomu, were paraded yesterday at the Lagos State House, Ikeja.
They are both from Ondo State. Narrating how they masterminded the abduction to journalists, Ododomu said nine people went to the palace to kidnap the monarch. He gave the names of the gang members to include Toba, Igodo, Mighty, Folly and Sam. According to him, Micah, who is the leader, did not go with them because “he had a babe with him at home”. Ododomu said he ventured into kidnapping when oil bunkering was becoming difficult for them.
The suspect explained that the kidnappers were armed with two AK47 rifles and three pump action guns during the attack. The suspect confessed that they first collected N12 million ransom and later demanded another ransom and were given N3.1 million extra, making a total of N15.1 million which they shared among themselves.
He said: “I am a bunkering man. When this government stopped the bunkering business, our leaders formed another group and we started kidnapping to manage ourselves. I am a married man and I don’t have any job to cater for my family.
When we started the kidnapping business, whenever they collected N500,000, they would give me N20,000. “For this one, Toba, Igodo, Mighty, and others went to Iba, they kidnapped the king.
After that they demanded N500 million, later they reduced it to N40 million. They gave them N12 million the first time. After that we gathered and shared the money. “All our senior people got the lions’ share of the money.
They gave Toba N1 million while Igodo and Micah collected N2.5 million each. For me, they gave me N100,000.” Ododomu added that after he travelled and came back, some of them agitated that the money given to them was small and decided to demand the remaining N28 million.
He said: “I told them that we should collect any amount and decamp because they can arrest us. Because of me, they agreed to collect N3,100,000. The family of the oba brought the money and they dropped it for us at Igbehinadun waterside.
We went there and brought the money and they gave me N100,000. Toba and the others shared the remaining money. Our base of operation is at Izegemo creek in Ikotun area.”
Ododomu said he was the one who paddled the monarch on the water to Iba while the others fled. Another suspect, Ferejo, also said they were nine people who kidnapped the monarch. He added that he was arrested at Iyana School area.https://newtelegraphonline.com/ate-bread-water-three-weeks-iba-monarch/
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