How I“escaped”from kidnappers who killed Kwara monarch, 83-year-old man says

An 83-year-old man, Pa Adeyemi Simon Aremu, has narrated his ordeal in the hands of kidnappers who invaded the palace of the Olukoro of Koro community in Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State, shot the monarch - Oba Peter Segun Aremu, and kidnapped his wife and another female.

Aremu was among those abducted alongside the monarch’s wife and another female victim.

Pa Aremu, a retired pastor, said: “I was having my dinner when suddenly six armed men entered my house and ordered me to follow them. While they were taking me away, they saw Olori under an Orange tree where she hid and a girl called Feranmi. They dragged the three of us inside the forest shooting heavily in the process.”

“It was a terrible and frightening situation for us. When I lost the energy to run, they began to drag me on the ground until we got to a spot where they ordered all of us to lie down facing the ground.”

“Then, one of them told me to stand up and go back home. But I was afraid and my heart was literally in my mouth because I thought they would shoot me from behind while going,” he said.

The octogenarian said he believed it was because he was weak and his health status may cause them a setback on the way and they decided to release him.

“It was when I got home that I saw the crowd gathered at the palace over the monarch who had been shot dead and lying in a pool of his blood.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Transition Implementation Committee (TIC) of the council, Mr Kayode Bayode, confirmed that N100m ransom was placed on the abductees by the bandits and that they gave the family of the late monarch 48 hours to raise the money, which would elapse yesterday (Saturday).