Osun Speaker’s Wife Recounts Ordeal In Kidnappers’ Den

 Mrs Salaam

A State High Court sitting at Iwo, Osun state, yesterday started the trial of suspects in the abduction of Wife of the Speaker, Osun State House of Assembly, Alhaja Muibat Salaam.

Leading witnesses in evidence before Justice Adekunle Adeigbe, State Attorney-General and the Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Wale Afolabi, led the Speaker’s wife who recounted her ordeal.

Mrs. Salaam explained that she was kidnapped by the suspects at Oke-Oyo area, Ejigbo on her way home in the presence of her daughter, Bukola, inside her Honda Accord car, and was whisked away in a truck to a forest along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway located in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area, Ogun State.

According to her, she was kept in the forest for four days, before vigilante men stormed the forest to rescue her, after appealing to them that she was not part of the gang, adding that she informed the vigilante men about the other suspects in a particular truck that was parked at the other side of the road, where communication with her husband was being conducted for ransom. She said the vigilante men were able to arrest three suspects in the truck.

The head of the vigilante group, Mr. Sunday Oniyide, while giving his own account said that he was in his office when a palm wine tapper came to inform him about the activities of some armed robbers in the forest where he was sourcing his palm wine.

He said he quickly informed the police at Ajebo police station, before his men stormed the forest, where they engaged the suspects in exchange of fire, before they were overpowered and arrested.

He also confirmed the arrest of the suspects in the parked truck, before they handed them over to the police in Ajebo police station, from where they were later transferred to Eleweran police command in Abeokuta.

In his own account, Speaker Najeem Salaam, stressed that he was coming out of the Governor’s office that day, when his Chief Detail informed him about the incidence, confirming that the suspects used his wife’s mobile phone to call him, demanding for ransom, which he could not offer before they were arrested.

The suspects: Chukwudi Okereke, Ogbole Elihah, Okonjwo Lucky, Chukwu Usifo, Kainkine Mahah, and Uwadiunor Philip were sent back to prison when the court adjourned to June 14, 2013.