Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, on Monday admitted that certain amount of money was paid as ransom before he was set free by his abductors on Thursday.
The statement contradicts the claim by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, who claimed that no ransom was paid before the elder statesman was released.
Falae, who was kidnapped by some suspected Fulani herdsmen on Monday, September 21 and released on Thursday September 24, 2015, however, did not disclose the amount paid, but added that it was when the money was completed that he was freed.
He stated this when a former Chief of Defence Staff, Lt.-Gen. Alani Akinrinade(retd.), paid him a visit at his Oba Ile, Akure, residence on Monday.
Falae, a former Minister of Finance, said, “There were six of them with three or four guns and every half an hour or so they will say, ‘Baba we are going to kill you, if you don’t give us money we are going to kill you.
“On Wednesday, one of them came and said, ‘Look, we are going to leave here on Thursday morning. Since we cannot leave you here alone, if we don’t get what we want, we are going to kill you’.
“And they said they gave me until 3pm and if at 3pm, they didn’t get the money, they would execute me. I thank God that at 21 minutes before 3pm, one of them came and said, ‘The money done complete’.”
