‘We paid our abductors N91m’ — Abuja music band leader recounts ordeal

Adewunmi Samuel Sofomade, the leader of the music band kidnapped along the Lokoja-Abuja highway last month, has recounted his ordeal with his abductors. 

In December, Sofomade and his juju band members were abducted while returning from a show.

The kidnappers were said to have demanded N10 million as ransom for each member of the band.

The 13-man group later regained their freedom after a few days in captivity.

In a recent interview with BBC Yoruba, the band leader, also called Omoba De Jombo Beats, revealed that the kidnappers later reduced their ransom to N7 million each (N91 million) before they were released.

He added that the kidnappers released them after six days while collecting the ransom in cash.

“Truly we were kidnapped. We were 13 in number. We went to perform at a burial ceremony at Itakete Isao. The town is closer to Isan-Olu in Kogi state. And they do not have an airport in Kogi, so we had to move by road,” he said.

“We had gone since Thursday. The party was on Friday. We finished performing at about 5:30 pm. When we finished around 5:30 pm. We felt that there was still time to return to Abuja on that road. We usually move around 1 am, 2 am, or 3 am sometimes, 5:30 pm was still small for us to move. We went past Dangote Cement around Obajana. The incident happened just after we went past Dangote Cement,” he said.

“We spent six days with the kidnappers inside a very thick forest… A lot of things happened in that forest and the six days felt like six years.

“They asked for N10 million for each person. Where are we going to get it? They started beating us. We also started calling. We begged their commandant that we could not gather N10 million and that he should have mercy on us. He later reduced it to N7 million.

“When we received the information that the money had been completed we started looking for cash. They initially agreed that the money be converted to foreign currency, but their leader changed his mind later on.”

‘THEY ASKED ME TO SELECT THREE OF MY BAND MEMBERS TO BE KILLED’ 

Sofomade said at a point, one of their abductors told him to select three people out of his band to be killed.

“One of the kidnappers also said their boss gave him an order to kill three out of us and that I, as the leader, should point at three people. I then begged him to help me tell their boss to please release my band members and kill me instead,” he said.

“We trekked for a long time and got to a point where they said they would depart from us and that we should walk straight out of the forest.”

The juju singer added that after regaining freedom, some villagers “gave us soaked garri and soft drinks to quench our thirst and hunger”.

“When we got to the main road the villagers saw us. They greeted us, and gave us soaked garri and soft drinks to quench our thirst and hunger before the people that brought the ransom came with a bus and took us away from there,” he added.