By Afolabi Sunday
Following the seeming silence on whether ransom was paid to secure the release of the abducted pupils and staff of the Apostolic Faith Nursery and Primary School Emure in the early hours of today, Sunday February 4, 2024, the proprietor of the school, Pastor Adesanya Gabriel has affirmed that money was paid for the captives release noting that the task to free the pupils and the staff was only possible after an undisclosed amount of ransom was paid to the kidnappers. He stated this in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in the school premises this evening.
According to him; “This (release) was made possible with the assistance of the entire community who assisted them to meet the demand of the kidnappers.
“We paid ransom, the community has to come in. Let us leave the how much that have been paid, but it is sure that ransom was paid,” he said.
Speaking further, he expressed his gratitude for the release of the rest of the abductees but expressed sadness on the death of one of his staff, Taiwo Olugbaye who happened to be the school bus driver.
The proprietor stated further that though, he was not part of the group that went for their release but he received a call in the early hours of today around 4:30 am that the pupils and the staff have been released and were already in the palace.
Pastor Adesanya, who thanked the Elemure of Emure Ekiti, Oba Adebayo, for his wonderful support and all the Chiefs in Emure Ekiti also expressed gratitude to the Chairman of Emure Local Government for his incredible support since the beginning of the tragic incident.
He also expressed his profound gratitude to the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji for the wonderful support by drafting all categories of security personnel to help them out.
In a similar vein, the proprietor of the faith based institution equally extended his appreciation to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu for seeing that the pupils and the staff off the school regained their freedom.
He however, charged the government to go extra mile at ensureing that lives and properties are protected in the State.
“I want to call on the government because the situation we are in Nigeria today needs a collaboration of support. We want the government to go extra mile because we want to sleep with our two eyes closed. The situation we are now, we cannot sleep and close our eyes.
“If it will be necessary for our government to call for intervention from the international communities so that we will be able to move on our roads freely, to be able to go to our farms, market places and also, for our children to go to schools without hindrances from these bandits. So we are calling on the government to do more, to go extra mile to see that lives and properties are secured” he said.
