By Afolabi Sunday
The Chairman of Emure Local Government, Honourable Adedayo Oluwatosin has revealed how the royal father of the town, the Elemure of Emure Ekiti, Oba Adebayo and himself led security personnels to the bush in search of the abducted pupils and staff of Apostolic Faith Nursery and Primary School Emure Ekiti prior to their release yesterday.
The victims were kidnapped on Monday January, 29, 2024 by suspected Fulani herdsmen inside the school bus along Emure and Eporo Ekiti road and were held captives in excruciating condition until they breathed the air of freedom on Sunday morning.
The Chairman, in an exclusive interview with our correspondent at his residence on sunday however decried poor network services in Emure Ekiti on the fateful day which according to him, made the process of tracking the bandits very difficult.
He explained that up till now, the MTN/GLO networks are still bad to the extent that it did not help issues at all.
The Council boss hinted our correspondent that he received the terrible kidnap news on Monday evening but lamented that there was no network services for more than five hours for easy tracking of the bandits.
“But when the news came, we all swung into action and both the Kabiyesi, the Chiefs, myself and the community leaders visited the scene of the incident where we were first giving clues to how it happened and their movement.
“On that very day, Kabiyesi together with security personnels, Police, Ekiti Amotekun and additional personnels sent from Ondo state, Vigilantes almost all of them gathered in the night and entered the bush around 8:30 pm in the intense search and came back the second day around 3:00 am on Tuesday but no success was achieved”
Speaking further, Adedayo said around 2:00 am on Tuesday, he was called from Eporo Ekiti that they wanted to search the forest from Eporo to “Igbo Osu,” which is Emure farm settlement and he hired over 15 Okadas for the operation but no result.
“But by Thursday, we discovered that they have started calling the parents of the victims in Eporo. These parents in turn called the Kabiyesi who summoned all the affected parents to his palace so that they can have unanimous voice when negotiating. They started with N100 million, which was to be 10 million naira per each person and negotiation started from there.
Continuing, the Chairman said;, “The parents said they have only 500, 000 thousand naira. But on Thursday, the kidnappers called to threaten that if they chose to value money more than their children, they will not hesitate to kill them all. From 500,000 thousand naira, they raised the bargain to five million naira by one of the victims mother who happened to be a grandmother to three of the abducted pupils. But by and large, they arrived at fifteen million naira as the ransom to be paid.” He said.
At this junction, Adedayo noted that the Executive Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji also again demonstrated his concern about the issue. He said after the agreement, the community and the government raised the fifteen million naira which was supposed to be delivered to them on Friday.
However, the Council boss claimed that the deployment of soldiers to the scene of the incident last Friday may have created fear in the camp of the bandits as they could not meet up with the appointment they gave for Friday.
According to him, the soldiers stormed the forest with almost eleven trucks from 8: 00 am to 1:00 am the second day.
Said he: “Because on that Friday, Kabiyesi led us to the bush. Kabiyesi and myself hanged somewhere in the bush when we got to Eporo while two of the Chiefs took the money to look for them.
“But the bandits were inconsistent in the way they talk, maybe they thought we came with soldiers. When it was around 2: 30 am, the Chiefs came back to meet Kabiyesi and myself because the bandits refused to show up.” He said.
Speaking further, The Chairman said, while waiting for their call on Saturday, it turned to another endless waiting because no one can call them since they normally switch off their phone after each call and the last time they called was around 1: 00 am saying that they will be waiting till around 3: 00 am and if our people failed to come they will kill the children and the staff.
On the journey to the final release of the victims, Adedayo stated that they were instructed to meet them at Owo – Ikare road by 3 :00am, when they got there with the money, the kidnappers redirected them to come to Oba Akoko area. From there, they were directed to one reserve at Oba- Akoko, from there they directed them to Ago – Panu in Ondo State where they eventually received the ransom and freed the people thus ending the six days traumatic experience in the community.
