'My kidnappers threatened to kill me,' Former SGF opens up

chika ebuzor

September 29, 2015 5:01 AM

There were six of them with three or four guns and every half an hour or so they will say, ‘Baba we are going to kill you, if you don’t give us money we are going to kill you.

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Olu Falae has revealed that a ransom was paid for his release contrary to police reports denying such payment.

Falae also said that his kidnappers frequently threatened to kill him while waiting for his family to pay the ransom.

The former SGF made the disclosure on Monday, September 28, 2015, while speaking to journalists in Ondo State.

"There were six of them with three or four guns and every half an hour or so they will 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 don’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’," he added.

"As I said 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 will 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," Falae said

“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. By the way, one of them told me, he said, ‘Baba, if after you leave us you talk nonsense I will come and catch you again’. That is the kind of insult I received. Only two of them could speak some English. They were between the ages of 25 and 35. They were Fulani, they spoke Hausa," he added.

Falae also said that citizens in the country would be forced to protect themselves against attacks if the government failed to protect them.

The police had initially claimed that no ransom was paid to secure the former SGF's release saying instead that he had been rescued by officers following an aerial and land operation.

chika ebuzor