By SEGUN AYINDE, ABEOKUTA
When Mr. Biodun Sonola, a principal technologist with Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, left his workplace for a journey to his Abeokuta, Ogun State, home, he never had any inkling of the danger awaiting him on the road.
Similarly, when 67-year-old farmer, AbdulRozeed Eseola, left home to work on his farm in Awela Village in Aiyetoro, Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State, he had hoped to return home later in the day with some goodies for the members of his family. He never bargained for what befell him immediately he arrived on his farm. A suspected Fulani herdsman allegedly attacked him, inflicting life-threatening machete cuts on him for challenging him for grazing his cattle on the farm!
In Sonola’s case, his six days in the captivity of suspected Fulani herdsmen left him with a broken arm and deep machete injuries on his body, resulting in his being hospitalised for some weeks. The technologist was kidnapped on April 26, 2019, while he was travelling from his base in Okada to Abeokuta, his hometown.
He was travelling home from Okada, Edo State in a commercial cab with two other passengers, when the kidnappers suddenly jumped on the road and ambushed the vehicle in a daylight operation at Igbotako after Omotosho in Ondo along the Lagos-Ore Expressway.
According to him, “That day, I boarded a Toyota Pinic car plying Sagamu-Ore Road. We were four in the vehicle, including the driver. The kidnappers didn’t use any vehicle, but they were all armed to the teeth. They laid ambush for our vehicle on the express road. Three of us were kidnapped, because immediately the driver saw them, maybe due to fear, he stopped the car and took to his heels, leaving us to our fate.”
He recalled that the kidnappers were thirteen in number, all suspected to be of Fulani extraction, but said he couldn’t ascertain whether they were foreigners or not. He also noted that the driver escaped the attack and reported the incident at the police station in Igbotako.
Recounting his ordeal, Sonola said, “When I was released, I got to know it was the driver who reported to the police because one of my phones dropped in the cab. The driver took it to the police station; the phone is still with the police. The driver also spoke to one of my colleagues, Solanke.
“They took us deep inside the forest, we trekked several hours while they subjected us to thorough beating and all sorts of dehumanisation. They placed N20million ransom on me, but I told them I didn’t have that kind of money. I was with them for six days while my family negotiates with them. Others were released before me, because they could pay the agreed ransom to our kidnappers. I was injured on my head with an axe; they treated my wound by pouring Chelsea gin on it, but the fracture on my left hand was not attended to.
“When we were with them, they always gave us a bottle of Biggi and two gala for a day. My younger brother came from Abeokuta to pay the ransom. They had collected his phone number and started communicating with him. My people negotiated with them to accept N500,000, to which they later agreed after inflicting more deadly injuries on me. They said I should tell my people where I kept my money. My employers sent N100,000. When my brother was coming to deliver the ransom, the kidnappers were monitoring his movement till he got to their designated point along the express road. There and then, they collected it and even counted the money in his presence.”
The university technologist was released by his kidnappers after his family had paid the N500,000 ransom. Seriously injured Sonola later took himself to the hospital, where he was placed on admission for many weeks.
“After the ransom was collected, the kidnappers asked me to follow a path created by timber lorries. I trekked from that spot to the express road, which took me four hours. I was released on Wednesday, May 1; that was May Day. So, the next day, Thursday, I went to the Olabisi Onabanjo University Hospital Annex in Saje, Abeokuta, from where I was then referred to the Federal Medical Centre in Abeokuta,” he said.
But unlike Sonola, who was kidnapped on the Benin-Ore Expressway, Eseola had got to his farm in Awela Village, Ayetoro in Yewa North Local Government Area penultimate Wednesday at about 7:00am, to discover a herdsman grazing his cattle on his farm with the livestock consuming virtually everything he had planted.
The angry farmer told our correspondent that he challenged the cattle rearer, who immediately pounced on him and dealt him several machete blows, inflicting life-threatening injuries on him in the process.
Eseola, who is currently receiving treatment at the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, said that the herdsman’s spontaneous attack took him by surprise as he immediately began to cut him all over his body with his machete.
The father of four added that when the herdsman saw that he had fallen on the ground, he attempted to strangle him to death, but he bit him with his teeth, overpowered him and forcibly took the cutlass from him.
The farmer further explained that immediately he got hold of the machete, the herdsman quickly took to heels and ran to the Ayetoro Police Station to report that he was the one who first launched an attack on him.
Eseola said that the herdsman later returned to his farm with a policeman who allegedly took side with him, snapping the picture of the minor injury on his body.
The farmer noted that it took the efforts of the area commander of the police, who came over to his farm to examine his body and discovered that it was actually the herdsman who inflicted deep injury in different parts of his body, including his arm, head and shoulder, to erase the initial impression that he was the aggressor.
The farmer, who claimed that he planted crops, including beans, maize and garden eggs on his farm, said that the herdsman was then arrested and taken to the police station.
Eseola explained how the incident occurred, saying, “When I got to my farm on Wednesday around 7:00am and I saw that the Fulani man had taken his cows to graze over my farm and they had eaten almost all the crops I planted on the farm, I decided to challenge him. But to my surprise, he pounced on me and used his cutlass to inflict injuries on my body.
“When he saw that I had fallen down, he then came over me to strangle my neck, but I bit his hand and I was able to seize the cutlass from him. He immediately rushed to the police station in Aiyetoro to report me.
“When he came back to the farm with a policeman to identify me, and because that one was an Hausa man, too, he took a picture of the part of my body, where the herdsman had inflicted minor injury on me and went away.
“Later the area commander of the police came and when he saw the degree of the injury the Fulani herdsman had inflicted on my body with his cutlass, he then ordered his policemen to arrest him.”
