•Says father-in-law was kidnapped in March 2021
Prior to the killing of 40-year-old Temitope Fatunmbi by kidnappers on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, his family had had an experience of abduction in Abuja, in March 2021, when the deceased paid a ransom for the release of his father, who was held hostage for six days. Saturday Tribune had an interview with his widow, Mrs Taiwo Fatunmbi, in which she told the story of how husband’s life ended abruptly. Excerpts:
Please we will like you to tell us how the incident that resulted in the death of your husband occurred?
We were on our way to Ibadan, Oyo State, from Lagos. The incident occurred after Onigaari axis, less than 20 kilometres to Ibadan. As we were driving on the highway, two of the guys (kidnappers) came from the bush on our side of the road. They started shooting, spraying the road with bullets.
The bullets pierced the back door where our two children sat. They are nine and seven-year-old kids. It was not more than five minutes that I told the younger one to stop resting on the door that the incident happened.
I was seated beside my husband who was driving. They had already planned the attack before emerging on the road and shooting.
How were they dressed?
The two that first emerged wore green khaki trousers, black top and wrapped white and black muffler on their necks.
Did you notice the type of guns they wielded?
They were big guns but I don’t know the name or type.
Did they cover their faces?
No, they did not. They started shooting sporadically and the bullets came in through the back door where my children sat and pierced my husband in his back on the right side. Another one entered through my own door. In fact, several bullets touched the vehicle, but two entered.
The one that came in through the door where I sat pierced the seat and went to my husband. It would have penetrated my body if I had relaxed on my seat. I was dodging because of the several bullets flying around.
My husband didn’t feel it immediately. He continued to drive so that we would get away from the gunmen. However, my daughter started calling my attention because the force of the bullet penetration grazed my son’s hand. My daughter told me to behold the blood coming from her brother’s hand but I was telling her to stay calm.
she shouted: ‘Mummy, mummy, see blood on daddy’s back!’ At that time, I shouted ‘Jesus!’ I held the spots when blood was gushing out as if a tap was opened. My husband said ‘wow! What is happening?’ I tried to pacify him. He then said he was not having strength.
By then, he could no longer accelerate properly. His speed reduced. I was trying to encourage him to move because the gunmen were still behind us and still shooting. We were three vehicles moving together at that time, one of the vehicles, a white SUV, swerved as if the driver wanted to park. It eventually parked.
The second one passed by us and was on the fast lane, and we were in the middle lane. As the vehicle was slowing down, I encouraged my husband to still move forward so that I could take over from him.
He looked at me and said he was not having strength. Next thing was that he lost control and swerved off the road into the bush by the roadside. The vehicle moved a little bit and had a somersault. The bush covered us that nobody would have known we were there. My husband’s head was down. The ignition of the vehicle was still on and the four tyres were up. I couldn’t help him as we were all still in the car.
I tried to unlock the vehicle to open my door side but I couldn’t. The door was stuck. I tried to open his door but it was stuck too. I managed to unlock his seatbelt and beckoned on my daughter to open the boot of the vehicle but she couldn’t.
My son tried his door and it opened. Immediately he did and we were trying to come out of the vehicle, the gunmen started shooting again. It was as if they surrounded the bush with bullets because they were all over the place. I dragged the children in and tried several times to call for help. I could not even trace my steps back to the road and he was still bleeding heavily, with his head down.
I picked my phone and started making calls. People coming from Ibadan who could have helped didn’t know where I was. Others were calling those they know and who were on the road to assist us, but they could not locate us also.
After about 45 minutes, I noticed that I was hearing shooting again so I tried to use my body to create a way as the bush was above and covered me and the SUV.
On getting to the road, the drivers of vehicles I was stopping were afraid, thinking that I was a bait planted there. Blood was all over me but nobody was willing to help. At the end of the day, three Sienna vehicles stopped but they didn’t want to enter the bush.
They believed I was planted there. They asked for the name of the injured person and I told them: ‘his name is Temitope Fatunmbi. He’s my husband!’ They were calling him to come out but I said he couldn’t come as he could no longer talk. But as at that time, my daughter said he was still breathing.
Later, the people heard my children’s voices from the bush. They were shouting: ‘please help our daddy!’ That was what brought the people to the place. They didn’t help the man but took the children to the road, so I ran after them. I saw a Road Safety (FRSC) bus speeding past and ran after it, shouting.
The bus stopped but there was no first aid in it. It only had a stretcher, so there was nothing to stop the bleeding. We were close to Ibadan but they took us to a hospital in Ogere. On getting there, the doctor referred us to another hospital. The following morning, I heard about his death.
We learnt that a similar incident of kidnapping happened to your family, specifically your father-in-law, when you were in Abuja. Can you throw light on this?
We relocated from Abuja to Lagos in 2021 due to kidnapping. We were victims. We were living at an area which is seven minutes drive to the Law School in Abuja.
It was on the last Tuesday in March 2021. They came at about 11:20pm. They knocked at my door. I didn’t know how they accessed our gate. The generating plant was still on.
My husband was not around as he was working in Lagos then and used to visit us every two weeks. The kidnappers came about five minutes after I finished speaking with my husband.
They ordered me to open the door. That was what prompted me to open my window. I saw one of them and told him I couldn’t open my door. I did not know they were many. He said: ‘madam, open the door.’ I told him I didn’t know him and couldn’t open the door. I ran to the room where my children were sleeping.
didn’t know what to do. My father-in-law who was sick was also in his room, sleeping . I went to the third room and squatted by the bedside. I was shivering and unable to use the phone.
He started kicking the door until it gave way. Till now, I don’t know how 10 of them came in at a time. I saw 10 people. Seven of them were holding what I thought were AK-47 rifles, but when the police saw the bullets, they said the guns were likely to be AK-49. One of them was holding a machete, another one had a hoe and the third one a stick.
I didn’t know that aside the 10 of them that I saw inside, a multitude of them was on the street from its beginning to the end. But it was our house they came first.
They raided the house, took everything they needed, including foodsstuff. They took things useful to them while they smashed all others the usefulness of which they knew not. They destroyed everything that they believed was of no use to them.
Did you see their faces?
Yes. Only three of them wore masks that looked like mufflers just wrapped around their noses and mouths and tied at their necks.
Were they speaking a particular language?
Yes, they were speaking Hausa and Fulani language. At a time, they asked me if I could understand them and I told them I couldn’t. I heard what they were saying but decided not to let them know. After everything, they brought all of us outside.
It was outside that my father-in-law was able to put on his trousers. They took him away without a shirt or shoes.
They asked about the person living beside us but I replied that I didn’t know him. That was when they started shooting, threatening that they were going to kill me and my father-in-law. They were shooting for not less than an hour and 45 minutes.
When they took my father-in-law away, I thought they just wanted to use him to gain entry to other houses. I didn’t know they had the intention of kidnapping him. They tied him beside the neighbour’s house and entered the neighbour’s place.
They did the same as was done in our house, and the man had to plead with them to leave his wife and take him alone. They left the wife and took my father-in-law, the man and a guy staying with him.
I was told later that they trekked for seven hours from the house to where they were kept, and the three of them were without clothes or shoes. My father-in-law and the other two people were with them for six days with the kidnappers asking for ransom.
They were inflicting pains on them. They were beating my father-in-law, a 70-year-old man, every one hour. He was on medications but was not allowed to go with them. On tbe sixth day, we paid a ransom of N4.6 million.
They also asked us to buy cartons of Trophy, cartons of malt, cartons of milk and recharge cards which were taken to them. It was in the early hours of the seventh day that we were able to see them. Before then, they asked that we should sell our property in Abuja and bring the money.
They said we should also sell our cars. Because of that, we could no longer stay in Abuja. We had to relocate to Lagos.
My husband’s love for us, the family, the children made him to decide not to leave us in Abuja. He brought us to Lagos to stay with him. We were there until October 28 when my husband was killed by kidnappers.
From Opera news