Ekiti kidnap victim, Alhaji Suleiman Akanji Akinbami, has recounted his ordeal in the hands of his abductors, urging governments at all levels in the country to urgently combat the rising insecurity in the country.
Alhaji Suleiman, a popular Ekiti based business man was kidnapped on January 10, before his release on 17 January, 2021.
The victim while recounting his ordeal told PMParrot that all governments in the country should be proactive in dealing with the high rate of insecurity in the nation while urging them to create an avenue where unemployed graduates and youths will be gainfully employed.
According to the elated businessman who expressed gratitude and appreciation to all stakeholders who facilitated his safe release narrated how his private car was used to abduct him from his filling station located beside the Immigration Office in Ado Ekiti.
Akinbami said, “they used to give me bread. At times, they will cook yam, and also cook rice inside the bush where I was kept. They were changing location from one place to another for all the eight days. They beat me but not too much. My experience in their custody was very horrible. I do not pray that my enemy should go through such a thing again.
“On the present situation that we are now, I pray God to save us. If things continue like this, anybody can become a victim, because from where they took me and from all the places the car stopped on the way, I was surprised that nobody even stopped to check who was inside the car.
“When they were taking me away, my head was down inside the car and I could not see anything up. My hands were tied. My legs were tied. They didn’t allow me to raise my head to see anything.
“The abductors spoke Yoruba and English fluently. They were not Hausa or Fulani from the way they spoke. I have to be sincere about that.
“One of them confessed to me that he was a graduate but he had no job. I am appealing to the Federal and State Government to create jobs because we don’t want people to go into crime.
When asked if ransom was paid for his release, Alhaji Akinbami said “I will only thank God for saving my life. I don’t want to say anything in connection with the issue of ransom payment. That I am alive is okay for me. I am bigger than money. I thank all those people who called that were begging them. I don’t want to talk about the ransom they collected. I thank God that whatever they have taken is history, that I am still alive is enough for me”.
The Ekiti State Government sent a delegation to his house and this included the Deputy Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Honourable Hakeem Jamiu; the Commander of the Ekiti State Amotekun Corps and the Special Adviser on Security Matters to the Governor, Brigadier General Ebenezer Ogunlana (Rtd); Bishop Felix Ajakaiye, the Catholic Bishop of Ekiti State Diocese among others.
Responding to questions after the visit, the Commander of the Ekiti State Amotekun Corps and the Special Adviser on Security Matters to the Governor, Brigadier Ebenezer Ogundana said “the Ekiti people must have the understanding that the issue of insecurity is a global phenomenon” while urging residents to keep faith with the government and help to expose the nefarious activities of evil doers in Ekiti State.
Packaged by Emmanuel Adeniran
