More details have emerged about the release of the abducted pupils and staff of the Apostolic Faith Nursery and Primary School in Emure, Ekiti State.
Clement Adebisi, the husband of one of the abducted teachers, said in an interview with The PUNCH that the abductees were released after raising an undisclosed amount of money and giving their captors food items.
He also stated that beyond the items, the kidnappers took the N50,000 he kept on him to get energy boosters for the victims.
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“When we started the journey to the forest from Emure-Ekiti, we did not want anybody to know that we were going there; we took a bus and laid flat in it so that people would not see us because we observed that the kidnappers knew some of what was going on in town, and we didn’t know how,” he said.
“We gave the instruction that nobody should make any calls. We passed through Eporo to Emure Ile (Ondo State), and from Emure Ile to Ikare junction. At Ikare junction, we went to buy everything they asked us to buy – fried rice, chicken, drinks, etc., as if we were going to pay a bride price.”
Adebisi said that when he arrived at the meeting point, a Fulani gunman asked that the victims be released after checking all he brought to be sure he followed their directives.
“On getting to that place, a Fulani gunman came from the bush and pointed the gun at me; two others appeared and pointed guns at me as well,” he said.
“We exchanged everything and they ordered our people to be brought to us. They were taking the abductees about in the bush as if they were taking animals to graze.
“One of them searched me and asked, ‘Are you with a gun?’ I answered, ‘I don’t know how to handle a gun’. He found and took the N50,000 I had kept in my pocket to buy items like glucose or energy boosters for the abductees upon their release so that they could have strength. He returned N100 to me out of the N50,000. He ordered me to take my people and leave.”
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The clergyman stated that his wife and the other victims are currently undergoing medical care as they were beaten several times by their abductors.
The five schoolchildren, along with their teachers, were released on February 4, five days after they were kidnapped in a school bus on its way from Emure-Ekiti. The driver was, however, killed in captivity.
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