HORROR! How Kidnappers Abducted, Shot, Ex UI DVC. Plus How Victims Were Killed Mercilessly, Paid Ransom, At Abductors’ Hideout.
Just as the furore the abduction of Professor Adigun Agbaje, a former University of Ibadan Deputy Vice Chancellor and other victims is settling down, the details of how the University Don and others got into the Kidnappers’ den have now emerged.
It will be recalled that The Bell Online News had reported how abductors of Professor Agbaje had demanded a ransom of #50M from his family before he could be released.
The news of the abduction of Prof. Agbaje’s and other victims including two undergraduates who were coming to Ibadan from Abeokuta were given prominence but the details of how the Don who is also the chair of the Oba Sikiru Adetona Institute for Governance at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye and others got into the kidnappers den were not told.
Immediately after his release on Sunday, Prof Agbaje issued a statement through his son, Adewale Agbaje expressing his gratitude to the management of University of Ibadan, friends, families and the two students over their supports throughout the two nights ‘i spent while i was with the kidnappers.
“It’s a new day today and I’m happy to be alive. I was released by my kidnappers yesterday evening after spending two nights in the thick forests of Ogun and Oyo states. My mind goes to the five others who are still left with the kidnappers: two young ladies, two young men and a middle aged person”.
One of the victims, Aminat Taiwo, a 22-year-old student of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY) who had been released along with her friend, Oluwatobi Orekoya, after their families had negotiated and paid a ransom of #3,5m to the kidnappers while speaking to the journalists narrated how the abductors who were disguised as military men stopped their commercial bus and took them into the thick forest adjacent the Dominion University.
In the words of Aminat, “It was some minutes to 4pm when we suddenly saw the kidnappers in Army uniforms and they were shooting sporadically. What we thought was that they were chasing armed robbers, not until they got to our own bus and ordered everyone of us out of the bus.
“Though, some passengers escaped, I had also escaped, but they came to pick me up where I was hiding and marched me into the forest with others. We walked for over six hours without shoes and we were beaten severally.
“It was the stray bullets from the sporadic shooting that hit the former Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Adigun Agbaje, the man is old, it was my friend and I who assisted him when he couldn’t walked fast. The old man was also complaining about his drugs, at the same time praying God should save him because of the gunshot injury he sustained.
“It is a lie when people say the kidnappers mounted roadblock to abduct us. It is a pure lie, there was nothing of such. We just saw them on the road shooting sporadically, we believed that they were chasing armed robbers, not until we were kidnapped that we knew who they were. They all dressed in Army uniform.
“All of us that were kidnapped sat close to decomposing bodies of victims that had been killed in their camp because their family members didn’t come up on time with the ransom they demanded.
“The kidnappers killed some abducted victims close to us and covered their corpses with plantain leaves while the whole area was covered with the odour from decomposing bodies and maggots from the corpse that litter the ground.
“They also threatened to kill us if our family members didn’t bring our ransom on time. I was scared when I saw how people sitting close to me were being killed simply because of money. It was a bad experience living in the forest without food nor water.
“There was this day that we sighted police men searching for us. I don’t know how they got to know that we were in the forest. Immediately the kidnappers saw them we were asked to lie down, after a while the policemen left when they didn’t see us, but we were seeing them.
“I was given my phone to call my parents, I was still talking to them when the Phone was collected from me and they told my parents to get N10 million each for me and my friend for our release.
“Twenty-four hours later, the kidnappers agreed to reduce the ransom from N20 million to N4 million. But my parents were able to raise N2 million, while my friend’s family also raised N1.5 million and the total money we gave them was N3.5 million, before we were released to my father who brought the ransom to them in the forest.
“I believe it was prayer that made them to collect such amount of money, while I was still in the forest some families paid N5 million to N8 million for the release of their family members in the kidnappers captivity”, Aminat concluded.
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