67-year-old Ekiti kidnap victim recounts ordeal as police parade suspects

Sixty-seven-year old kidnap victim, Mrs. Florence Popoola, has recounted her ordeal in the den of kidnappers.

She relieved her experience when five of the suspected kidnappers were paraded by the police in the state, on Tuesday after their arrest.

The suspects had abducted Mrs. Popoola on September 14 when, according to the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Abdulahi Chafe, they had “invaded the residence of Mr. Popoola at Arafomi Quarters and forcefully kidnapped his wife (Florence).”

The CP, who was represented by the Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti Command, at the parade of the suspects, said “the hoodlums whisked the woman away in he Nissan Sunny car.”

The five suspects namely: Sunday Adeoye, 30; Dare Adesi, 26; Seun Ogunlayi, 25; Damilola Bamigboye 27 and Tope Ojo, 32, Chafe said, had confessed to the crime.

The police revealed that cash sum of N323,000 being part of the ransom collected from the victim’s family were recovered.

The CP added that the Nissan car was also recovered from the suspects and warned that anyone coming to the state with the intention of committing crimes should not dare.

He said all citizens of Ekiti State should “go about their lawful businesses as the police and the other security agencies are in synergy to ensure adequate protection of lives and property in the state.”

Recounting her four-day ordeal with the kidnappers, Mrs Popoola lamented that she was forcefully taken to a forest, where she was starved, after she was forcefully taken from her home, on her return from a church programme.

“I was made to walk long distances even with my ailing leg, as they moved with me from one location to another for the four days.

“They puffed cigarette smoke in my face, choking me in the process while I had to beg them for water. I was fed stale rice meal, which upset my stomach and upon my throwing-up, they threatened that I’d have to eat my vomit to survive if my children didn’t meet their N1.5million ransom demand,” she recounted.

According to her, “when they got N1million of their N1..5 demand from my family, they told me it was time to go. They set me on a path and directed that I should keep walking, that my children would pick me on the road.

“After I’ve trekked for about a kilometer, I saw someone to whom I cried for help. With the phone they gave me, they helped me to contact my children.”

She was found in Awo community after she was taken from Ikere, a distance of not less than 50 kilometers.