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My family paid ransom for my release-Falae

· Kidnap a big insult-Akinrinade

From Bola Ojuola, Akure

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Minister of Finance, Chief Olu Falae, yesterday said his family paid an undisclosed amount of money to his kidnappers to secure his release.

Speaking with newsmen in Akure yesterday, he said ýhis abductors made him sleep in the bush and walk continuously for hours on the first day of abduction, saying they threatened his life throughout the period of his captivity.

“One of them even told me that after leaving them if I went out and talked nonsense, they would come back and kidnap me again”, he said.

He said he was deprived of food and made to trek several kilometres to freedom, adding that the hoodlums threatened to kill him every 30 minutes until they got news of ransom payment.

“There were six of them with three or four guns and every half an hour or so they would say, ‘Baba we are going to kill you, if you don’t give us money we are going to kill you,” Falae said. “On Wednesday, one of them came and said ‘look we are going to leave here on Thursday morning. Since we cannot leave you here alone, if we don’t get what we want we are going to kill you.”

“And they said they gave me until 3pm and if at 3pm they didn’t get the money they would execute me. I thank God that at 21 minutes to 3pm, one of them came and said, ‘the money don complete’.”

“Miraculously, I was not tired, I was not hungry and I was not afraid of them at all. Each time they said, ‘Baba we will kill you,’ I would tell them, ‘no, insha Allah, you will not kill me’. I did not break down, but I want to tell you that when I got back home I became completely exhausted. But I am now 80 per cent fit and I know in the next few days I will be up again.”

He warned that such attack should not be allowed to happen again as it could result to even graver consequences.

“It is not because of me. As for me, I am a very humble person, but by virtue of what God has made me and the status God has given me, it is an insult to our race that a man like me could be abducted by a bunch of hoodlums,” he said.

Former Chief of Defence Staff, retired General Alani Akinrinade, also said yesterday that the federal government should find a lasting solution to the incessant kidnappings in the South-west.

Speaking during a visit to Chief Olu Falae, in Akure, Akinrinade said the recent kidnap of Chief Falae was a deep insult not only to the Yoruba race but the nation as a whole.

“Chief Falae was dealt with and traumatized in the hands of those hoodlums. This is a gentle man who is making farming for a living and very contented with his family. This is shocking and I have no reason for anyone whatever their mission might be, to have gone to his house or farm and start being nasty, talk less of having the effrontery to demand for a ransom”, he said.

Akinrinade lamented the high level of insecurity in the country, adding that Yorubas might be forced to protect themselves if the federal government fails to provide adequate security. He faulted the argument that lack of suitable employment causes criminal activities in society.