On the 15th of January 2017, The Olori Abodi of Ikale Land, Grace Faduyile was preyed on and kidnapped by a bunch of roughnecks while returning from church. Also kidnapped with her was a friend, Mrs. Bamitale Adetuwo. They are cats with nine lives. In this interview with the polity. Com, Olori describes how it all happened. Excerpt –
– Can you recall how it happened ?
Olori Faduyile – We went to the church on that fateful Sunday, 15th of January, 2017. Our church is St. Joseph Catholic church here at Ikoya. It happened that on that very day Kabiesi was billed to attend the Armed forces remembrance day at Okitipupa where he would lay wreath in the memory of the fallen heroes. The driver took him to the event.
Our service ends by 10.am, so I asked ‘Tale Adetuwo to drop me at the palace. In the car were myself, the lady and her children at the back seat. We got to the palace gate and as soon as I got down from the car, someone suddenly appeared very close to the driver’ s side, demanding the car key from her.
The fellow asked her in a rough, guttural voice to drop her key. We (myself and the woman) asked why. “why should she drop her car key?” Then other guys, his accomplices showed up, with guns in their hands. I asked her to give them the key and come down from the car. At that point we thought they probably wanted to make away with the car, but how wrong was I? One of them replied, “come out for what?”. Myself who had already disembarked from the car was roughly shoved in while they allowed the children at the back seat to go. As soon as they had me and the other lady in the car, the kidnappers cramped themselves into the car and were set to move. Quite unfortunately for them, the car wouldn’t move. They tried severally to start the car, but the automobile won’t budge. At that instance, I told them they were making a great mistake.
The man from the nearby shop came out to challenge them but as they threatened him with gun, he scurried off to safety. When the car wouldn’t respond, they resolved to pushing it until they got to the junction of Ikoya – Igbotako road and they turned towards Okitipupa. They drove off in that direction and halted a pole after the bridge, turning towards the Akinhun river.
It was at that spot that they abandoned the car, making us to treck into the bush until they got to where they had already anchored their get – away canoe. That was how we began our journey through the upstream ; two of us were in a canoe, one of them was paddling us while the other four followed closely in another canoe. That was how we moved on until they met a canoe coming from the opposite direction. The man paddling the canoe from the opposite direction was a fisher man.
They stopped him and challenged him if he knew us which he declined ; they asked for his weapon and he told them he had none. When they wanted to assault him, he dived into the water and escaped. They pushed his canoe down the river and paddled on. Whereas, those who saw them when they were taking us away had gone to raise the alarm in the town about the development. So, people had come to gather at the bank of Akinhun river, while others searched the nearby bush .
Those searching saw my beads that fell off why they were dragging us, but the intervention of the boy who escaped their assault upstream made the job of the search party easier by telling them the direction the gang had taken us on the water way. So, our people simply took the initiative to go ahead of the kidnappers and laid in wait for them. When we got to the point where our people laid ambush for them, we started to hear noise: ” don’t shoot!” “if you shoot, I ll kill them! Drop your gun! ”
They already covered our eyes, so we couldn’t see much. We just heard exchange of gunshots and found out the one paddling us away had been shot. As soon as other rescuers trooped in, kidnappers in the second boat did the needful by running into the bush to escape being caught by the horde of rescuers who had come for us. Our people reached for us and freed us eventually.
The Polity – What was your immediate reaction when you realized they were kidnappers?
Olori Faduyile – I started praying. I thought they were car thieves but when they shoved us into the car at gun point, I realized kidnappers have berthed on our hallowed soil, so I started praying. I used my prayers to connect with God, asking him to have mercy on us.
The Polity – Your reaction when you were released from the abductors’ grip?
Olori Faduyile – I was so overwhelmed. I was moved by the sight of the mammoth crowd that had come for the rescue mission. I was humbled when I thought of the sacrifice of love of the people of our domain; the instant support will move any grateful mind. The Commissioner of Police had already sent the area command and everybody was on ground to ensure our
safe return from the den of the kidnappers.
The Polity – Ikoya is known to be a calm, quiet and peaceful community. With this development, can we say some bad eggs have infiltrated the town?
Olori Faduyile – You see, with the trend of things going on in the country, we cannot say the people here are bad. Based on the identity cards recovered from these kidnappers, we realised they are from Ese – Odo. None of them is a native of Ikoya. We got their voter cards and from the name they bear, they are from Ese – Odo and they register ed as permanent voters at Ese-Odo local government. They came here for timber business, and of course that is their alibi while the kidnapping business is their main stay. However, we may not be able to rule out completely the fact that there might have been some bad eggs in the community whom the kidnappers must have mingled with. That notwithstanding, I thank all the natives of Ikoya who rose up promptly to nip the kidnappers plan in the bud.
The Polity – Do you think the synergy between the Police and the hunters fast tracked your prompt release from the kidnappers?
Olori Faduyile – Of course, yes. They worked together and there was result. Their prompt intervention made everything work out for good and I thank them most sincerely.
The Polity – Could unemployment among the youths be responsible for the increase of this vice?
Olori Faduyile – It is very possible! Government has its job cut out here; it is not all about white collar job now. Government should think out of the box and come up with viable and proactive empowerment policy for the youths that will keep their mind and body busy and distract them from engaging in vices such as kidnapping and armed robbery.
The Polity – How do you assess security situation in the state?
Olori Faduyile – Well we thank God the Police has been managing the state security and there has been peace so far. However, the Ondo state police command has manpower shortage and it is affecting their productivity very seriously. They are short of manpower and it is the abundance of police personnel that makes crime to fizzle out in the society.
Appreciation – Olori Faduyile – My appreciation goes to everyone in Ikoya , the hunters, the police, the good people of the town, authority of Ondo state police command and our people from Okitipupa, Ode-Aye, Igbotako who trooped in with the resolve of rescuing me at all cost. I am grateful to them all.
