THE senior lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Prof. Olayinka Oladiran Adegbehingbe, who was kidnapped last Sunday on Ibadan-Ife Road, paid N5.04 million before he was released on Monday night by his abductors.
Though the Osun State Police Command insisted it was not aware of the payment of the ransom, an informed source, who craved anonymity, said the family paid for the victim’s freedom.
Around 10.30p.m., Adegbehingbe was released by the gunmen and he was in police custody for few hours before he was reunited with his distressed family.
The command’s spokesperson, Mrs. Folasade Odoro, told reporters that the police were still on the trail of the kidnappers, assuring that they would soon be brought to justice.
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Many people yesterday besieged the Obafemi Awolowo University residential quarter of Prof. Adegbehingbe to sympathise with him. They thanked God for his release.
Narrating his ordeal to the sympathisers, Adegbehingbe stated that his wife, Bernice, was first accosted by the gunmen.
The don said out of fear, his wife somersaulted repeatedly before she was set free and he was taken away.
Adegbehingbe was not ready to speak with reporters but he told friends and relations solidarising with him that his abductors were fierce-looking Fulani herdsmen, who were in possession of four guns and multiple rounds of ammunition.
He said: “Those, who abducted me were Fulani herdsmen and they had four guns and multiple rounds of ammunition as well as different dangerous weapons.”
According to him, before his abductors settled for N5.04 million after serious negotiation, they first demanded N30 million ransom.
Adegbehinde, who said he was in a good state of health, hailed those who stood by him and his family during the ordeal.
He said: “My greatest appreciation goes to God, my creator, who spared my life while in the valley of death. I also thank the security operatives, the entire Obafemi Awolowo University and the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, my family, church members and all other well-wishers for their prayers and moral support.”
He, however, urged the Federal Government to invest more insecurity, to ascertain the identity of people coming in and going out of the town and the country.
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