Olu Falae say a ransom was paid for his release, shares his horrible kidnap experience

Onetime presidential candidate, Chief Olu Falae, who was
kidinapped on Monday September 21st by suspected fulani
herdsmen and released on Thursday September 24th, has
confirmed that a ransom was paid by his family members
for his release.
Speaking to journalists at his home in Akure, Ondo state
today Sept. 28th, Falae said his abductors threatened to kill
him on Wednesday September 23rd at about 3pm if the
ransom was not paid but thankfully 20 minutes to 3pm, his
abductors came to him and told him"the money don
complete".
"There were six of them with three or four guns and every
half an hour or so they will say, ‘Baba we are going to kill
you, if you don’t give us money we are going to kill you. On
Wednesday, one of them came and said ‘look we are going
to leave here on Thursday morning. Since we cannot leave
you here alone, if we don’t get what we want we are going
to kill you. And they said they gave me until 3pm and if at
3pm they don’t get the money they would execute me. I
thank God that at 21 minutes to 3pm, one of them came
and said, ‘the money don complete’.”he said
Narrating how he was kidnapped, Falae said “When the
hoodlums came, they slashed me with their cutlasses,
they said I was not cooperating. And they dragged me
barefooted into the bush. After dragging me around for
about two hours, they stopped somewhere for us to rest
and there they asked me to phone my wife and tell her
that I have been kidnapped and taken out of Ondo State
by car which was a lie. It was about 2.30pm on Monday,
We started walking with very few stops until 2am the
following morning. I suspect that I must have covered a
minimum of 15km. That morning I did not take anything.
So all day I had no food, no water and I walked close to
15km. How I survived I cannot really remember. I had
no food in my stomach, I had no shoes, my clothes were
torn to shreds. At some point one of them gave me a
rubber slippers. We walked until about 2am. At some
point they called for an Okada. At about 2.30am the
Okada man took me way down I had no clue where we
were going. Finally they dumped me somewhere, where I
was until I was released on Thursday. In that place we
all slept on the floor on leaves, unfortunately the rain
came in the night and I was thoroughly drenched where I
was lying down. One of them brought a small umbrella
to cover my head, my head was covered, but the rest of
my body was not covered. They offered me bread, but I
told them I could not eat it. I demanded for a bottle of
coke, which was what I drank every day to have the
requisite strength to survive and to continue on the
march, because they were permanently moving. They
were changing locations at two to three times a day. I
suspect because they did not want the police to succeed
in tracing them. So the following morning they said I
should go. One of them took ropes to stitch my buba
which was already in tatters, so that it could at least stay
on me and I wound not look like a lunatic while leaving
that place. So when I came out of the bush, I was able to
find an Okada, a man riding bike, who gave me a lift to
Owo. The place was about 10km from Owo town. The
place was between Owo and Ifon. And I walked most of
the distances between my farm to that place and as the
farrow flies, that is about 25km that we had to trek. As I
said miraculously I was not tired, I was not hungry and I
was not afraid of them at all. Each time they said, ‘Baba
we will kill you,’ I will tell them, ‘no, insha Allah, you will
not kill me’. I did not break down, but I want to tell you
that when I got back home I became completely
exhausted. But I am now 80 per cent fit and I know in
the next few days I will be up again.”he said
He decried the level of insecurity in the country
“It is not because of me. As for me, I am a very humble
person, but by virtue of what God has made me and the
status God has given me, it is an insult to our race that a
man like me could be abducted by a bunch of hoodlums.
By the way, one of them told me, he said, ‘Baba, if after
you leave us you talk nonsense I will come and catch
you again’. That is the kind of insult I received. Only two
of them could speak some English. They were between
the ages of 25 and 35. They were Fulani, they spoke
Hausa.”he said
According to Falae, his kidnap is not unconnected with a
clash with some Fulani herdsmen who consistently
grazed at his farm.
“The cattle rearers have been giving me a hard time for
the past two or three years. Because I have a dam on
the farm, so they like to bring their cattle there to drink
water, then they eat other people’s crops. This time they
ate up my maize farm, two hectares. We took pictures,
and it was videoed, the police went there. They were
asked to pay compensation, they begged and paid half of
what we claimed and we accepted it. That was about
two months ago. Whether it was one of them who went
to bring his brothers to come and deal ‘with this wicked
man’, I don’t know. It is plausible. Absolutely plausible.
My view is that this is my home. I have not gone to farm
in any other person’s territory. This is my home where I
was born. I have every right to farm here and live in
peace here. So, this is totally unacceptable. I once told
the Commissioner of Police that if he cannot protect us
and protect my farm, that I will protect myself. There will
be self-help if government fails to protect its citizens. It
would have been unfortunate if that were to happen. The
IG met me and gave me assurances that they will give us
protection. I hope that we as a community in Ondo State
and in Yoruba land as a whole must go into consultation
to ensure that we enhance our protection. We cannot be
slaves in our own territory. These fellows were
permanently on the move. Day and night they were
walking" he said