‘Kidnappers, killers of my daughter aren’t Fulani’, mother of slain LAUTECH student laments
By Stephen Gbadamosi, Ibadan
The mother of Rachael Opadele, the final-year student of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTHECH), Ogbomoso, who was kidnapped alongside a hotelier, Mr. Gbenga Owolabi, and later murdered by their abductors, Mrs. Opadele, has said she is sure that her daughter’s abductors are not Fulani people, but those who know the owner of the hotel well.
Owolabi and Rachael, who was doing part-time work, owing to the Academic Staff of Universities (ASUU) strike, were kidnapped in the premises of the hotel about two weeks ago.
The abductors killed them after receiving N5 million ransom.
They had earlier requested for a N50 million ransom, which the family claimed they did not succeed in raising.
She also said she suspected that it was the hotelier – who just returned from outside the country shortly before they were abducted – was the target of the gunmen, adding that it was those who knew the man among the Yoruba community or people in the neighbourhood, who were responsible for the tragic act.
The bereaved mother spoke on a Yes FM, Ibadan live programme, monitored by our reporter at the weekend.
She claimed that the abductors were actually Yoruba people who veined speaking like Fulani men.
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She added that they (family) suspected that the bearer of the ransom was known to the kidnappers, hence, their decision to eliminate all of them.
Alongside Owolabi and Rachael, the kidnapper killed the commercial motorcycle rider who conveyed the ransom bearer, who was lucky enough to escape with gunshot wound.
The programme also played back recordings of ransom negotiation between family members and the kidnappers, showing that the kidnapper negotiator wasn’t actually speaking English with Fulani or Hausa intonation.
It was learnt that the hotelier established the hotel while abroad and conducted interview for the staff via telephone calls.
Besides, it was revealed that it was only about six days after the elderly hotelier returned to Nigeria that gunmen stormed his hotel, abducted him and took along Rachael.
