67-year-old recounts 4 days with captors
A kidnap victim, Florence Popoola, 67, on Tuesday recounted her ordeal in the hands of her captors saying she was fed stale rice meal and starved of water during the four days in captivity. She gave the moving account at the police headquarters in Ado Ekiti where five of the suspected kidnappers were paraded by […]
She gave the moving account at the police headquarters in Ado Ekiti where five of the suspected kidnappers were paraded by the police in the state after their arrest.
Popoola was abducted on September 14 according to the Commissioner of Police in the state, Abdulahi Chafe, after the captors forcefully invaded her home shortly after she returned from a church programme.
Chafe, who was represented by the Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti Command, at the parade of the suspects, said "the hoodlums whisked the woman away in her Nissan Sunny car."
Those paraded were : Sunday Adeoye, 30; Dare Adesi, 26; Seun Ogunlayi, 25; Damilola Bamigboye 27 and Tope Ojo, 32.
Chafe said the suspects had confessed to the crime and added that a cash sum of "N323,000 being part of the ransom collected by the suspects from the victim’s family were recovered."
The CP added that the Nissan car was also recovered from the suspects and warned that anyone coming to the state with the intention of committing crimes should not dare, saying all citizens of Ekiti State should "go about their lawful businesses as the police and the other security agencies are in synergy to ensure adequate protection of lives and property in the state."
Recounting her four-day ordeal with the kidnappers, Popoola said, "I was made to walk long distances even with my ailing leg, as they moved with me from one location to another for the four days. They puffed cigarette smoke in my face, choking me in the process while I had to beg them for water. I was fed stale rice meal, which upset my stomach and upon my throwing-up, they threatened that I’d have to eat my vomit to survive if my children didn’t meet their N1.5million ransom demand.”
According to her, "When they got N1million of their N1.5m demand from my family, they told me it was time to go. They set me on a path and directed that I should keep walking, that my children would pick me on the road. After I’ve trekked for about a kilometer, I saw someone to whom I cried for help. With the phone they gave me, they helped me to contact my children."
She was found in Awo community after she was taken from Ikere, a distance of not less than 50 kilometers.