Chief Falae, was abducted
on his farm at Ilado village, Akure, Ondo state on his 77th birthday on Sept.
21 by armed Fulani herdsmen and released four days later.
The Department of State
Service, DSS, yesterday presented two suspected abductors of Chief Olu Falae, a
former Secretary to Government of the Federation, in Abuja.
Presenting the suspects, Mr
Abdullahi Garba, an operative of the service, said that they were arrested on
October 5 at J. Zebra hotel in Lokoja.
One of the suspects,
Abdullahi Usman (aka Kadiri) yesterday, gave a narration of how he helped to
pinpoint “a big man who goes to his farm in Toyota Hilux van” who could be
kidnapped to provide Sallah and wedding funds to some of his friends.
Narrating how Chief Falae
was abducted, while he and another suspect, Babawuro Kato were paraded by DSS
operatives at their headquarters in Abuja, Usman said he was approached by some
of his friends in Kwara State shortly before the last Eid El-Kabir during a
wedding ceremony.
Usman continued that one
Datijo approached him complaining that he was so broke that he might not be
able to satisfactorily celebrate the festival unless he (Usman) was able to
give information on any big man that could be abducted for ransom.
“I then told him that I
know one man who used to bring a Hilux vehicle to his farm and I used to see
him as I move my cows about”, he said.
That was how the gang
members arranged to kidnap Chief Falae on his farm on Monday, September 21,
2015.
Usman said they then took
Falae to Owo, where he was kept at a place called ‘Pipeline’ around Benin
junction.
Eventually, the ransom of
N5 million was paid to Datijo, who, according to Usman made away with it.
In their narrative, it was
the second suspect, Kato who ferried Datijo and Falae on his commercial
motorcycle from the hideout to where he was eventually picked up by the Police.
Kato however, insisted that
he was not a member of the gang as he was only contracted to transport the two
that night.
According to Garba, who
addressed the press on behalf of the DSS, the suspects were picked up in
Lokoja.
He stated that the
abductors were mere criminals and that their action was not motivated by any
political or ethnic sentiment.
“The service wishes to
state that the abductors were mere criminals. Investigations have further
revealed that their action was not targeted at Falae as a statesman and
prominent Yoruba leader.”
He enjoined Nigerians to
continue to live peacefully with one another and shun attempts by mischief
makers to give the unfortunate incident an ethnic coloration and use same to
cause disaffection among the populace.
“To this effect, the
Service wishes to appeal to all Nigerians to be law abiding and responsible in
their commentary on sensitive issues affecting national security.
Useless boys
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