Ekiti kidnap: ‘I heard my son being beaten, crying when abductors called me’
I had the cry of my boy, as he was being beaten, when his abductors spoke to me on the telephone,” father of 13-year-old Ogoolami Jegede, said yesterday.
Mr. Jegede expressed concern about the health of his wife Esther, 40, son, and others in the kidnappers’ den, having being in the tick forest without food and shelter for three days.
He said he was trumatised and tired because he has no means of raising N20 million demanded on his wife and son.
The abductors made N100 million demand on the 10 abducted people.
Jegede, also a teacher, said: “This is the darkest moment of my life. I’m really perplexed and confused. I do not know what to do because I have no one to help, except God. I have not received any penny even though people, including my church, have promised but we have not seen anything.
What my wife and son are facing in the hands of the kidnappers is too much for them to bear. When they call on Tuesday around 2pm, I could hear the cries of my liitle Ogoolami and when they gave the phone to him and later my wife, I could imagine what the duo were facing through their voices.
The kidnappers even threatened to kill them if I don’t bring the money. But I was just pleading.
He added: “The present update as at this evening is that they requested for N10m for each of the victims. This morning, I expected that they would call, but they have not called up till this moment. We have been to Emure to see the king and the school authority this morning (yesterday). They told us to go and be looking for money. That’s is the update. No more progress.
“I’m appealing to the state government to come to our rescue because there is no how I can raise that kind of money. We are pleading that the federal and state governments should assist us to rescue them”.
Efforts by the people of Eporo, a rustic Ekiti town in Emure Local Government Area, to secure the release of abducted pupils, teachers and the driver began yesterday.
Residents launched a crowd funding to raise ransom for the abductees, whose kidnap on Monday sent the rural community into panic.
The incident occurred around 3:55pm on the same day two traditional rulers – Onimojo of Imojo, Oba Olusola Olatunji and the Elesun of Esun Ekiti, Oba Babatunde Ogunsakin – were killed by gunmen while returning from a meeting at Ogbe, a neighboring town in Yagbawest Local Government Area of Kogi State.
Founded in September, 2007, the Apostolic Faith Church Primary and Secondary School, Emure-Ekiti operates day and boarding systems, with hundreds of pupils.
