Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, on Monday admitted that certain amount of money was paid as ransom before he was set free by his abductors on Thursday.
The statement contradicts the claim by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, who claimed that no ransom was paid before the elder statesman was released.
Falae, who was kidnapped by some suspected Fulani herdsmen on Monday, September 21 and released on Thursday September 24, 2015, however, did not disclose the amount paid, but added that it was when the money was completed that he was freed.
He stated this when a former Chief of Defence Staff, Lt.-Gen. Alani Akinrinade(retd.), paid him a visit at his Oba Ile, Akure, residence on Monday.
Falae, a former Minister of Finance, said, “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 didn’t get the money, they would execute me. I thank God that at 21 minutes before 3pm, one of them came and said, ‘The money done complete’.”
Speaking during the visit, Akinrinade described the abduction of Falae by the suspected Fulani herdsmen as an insult to the entire Yoruba nation.
He added that the Federal Government should find a lasting solution to the incessant activities of kidnappers in the country.
Expressing worry over the development, the former NADECO chieftain said kidnapping had become more pronounced in the South-West in recent times, stressing that criminals had penetrated Yoruba land more than before.
According to him, the recent abduction of Falae is the height of insult not only to the Yoruba race in the South-West Nigeria, but the Nation as a whole.
Akinrinade said, “This is a big insult to the Yoruba nation. Chief Olu Falae was traumatised in the hands of these hoodlums. This is a gentleman, who is farming for a living and doing well with it.
“The fact that the Yoruba people are hospitable in their relationship with other tribes should not be a basis for disrespecting their leaders including its culture and norms.”
He warned that the Yoruba in the South-West region might be forced to protect themselves if the Federal Government failed to compel the security agencies to provide adequate security.
