67-yr-old kidnap victim recounts ordeal as police parade suspects

A kidnap victim, 67-year-old Mrs. Florence Popoola, yesterday recounted her ordeal in the hands of her captors, saying she was fed stale rice meal and starved of water during the four days she spent in their captivity.

Mrs Popoola gave the moving account at the police headquarters in Ado Ekiti where five of the suspected kidnappers were paraded by the police in after their arrest.

The old woman was abducted on September 14, 2017, according to the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Abdulahi Chafe, when they invaded the residence of Mr. Popoola at Arafomi Quarters and forcefully kidnapped his wife (Florence).”

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.

The police Commissioner 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, was recovered. He added that the Nissan car was also recovered from the suspects.

Recounting her four-day ordeal with the kidnappers, Mrs Popoola lamented that she was forcefully taken to a forest, where she was starved after she was forcefully taken from her home on her return from a church programme.

“I was made to walk long distances, even with my ailing leg, as they moved 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 N1.5 million ransom demand,” she recounted.

According to her, “When they got N1m 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 kilometre, I saw someone to whom I cried for help. With the phone they gave me, that person helped me to contact my children.”