Independence Day brought freedom to a pastor in Ondo State who was kidnapped on Monday, September 21 as he was freed by his abductors without any report of a ransom fee having been paid.
Pastor Japhet Obafemi of the Apostolic Church, Ilepa in Ikare-Akoko, Akoko North East Local Government of the state regained his freedom on Thursday after being kidnapped in a border town with Edo and Kogi states.
The abductors of the 70-year-old clergyman were said to have initially demanded for a ransom fee of N60 million, which the family had claimed not to have.
The wife of the pastor, Mrs Olu Obafemi had told journalists that her husband was recuperating from an illness when he was kidnapped.
She had also appealed to the government to help get her husband out of captivity.
Obafemi said he trekked about six kilometres out of the bush where he was being held before he could hit the road to freedom, just as the family claimed no ransom was paid to secure the septuagenarian’s release.
He said he was set free in Ise-Akoko in the same local government as his home and a few kilometres from where he was kidnapped.
It will be recalled that a former Secretary to the Federal Government, Chief Olu Falae was also recently kidnapped from his farm in Ondo state by gun-wielding men and released four days later, after his family paid a ransom fee running into millions of naira to buy his freedom.
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