By John Ugo
The Chairman of the Edo State chapter of the Independent Petroleum Marketers of Nigerian, (IPMAN), Alhaji Abdul-Hamid Egele, who was released recently by gunmen after eleven days in kidnapers den, has called for concerted effort among Nigerians towards tackling the menace of insecurity facing the country.
Egele, was kidnapped on Monday, February 7, at his residence in Jattu, Etasako West Local Government Area, at about 7pm.
He was later released on Thursday last week, 11 days after his abduction on payment of N70m random in Kaduna State.
Egele who spoke with newsmen in Benin the Edo state capital on Sunday, appealed to the people not to shy away from going home as doing so would not solve the issue of kidnapping and the problem of insecurity.
He said, “I want to advise the people not to be discouraged and running away from home, we must come together in prayers and savage the country together. I have discovered that Police and Army in the whole world cannot solve what is happening together, but Almighty Allah.”
Egele narrated his ordeal in the hands of his abductors, pointing out that he ate a piece of apple on each day of the 11days he spent in the forest with his abductors.
“Though I was offered food everyday, but I told them I was not hungry but only requested for apple which they gave me one each day of the period I spent with them in the forest.
“It was the day I heard I was going to be released that I demanded for a tin of milk; they obliged me with pap. I needed it for strength because I knew I was going to trek long distance upon my release,” he said.
He commended his well-wishers and Muslim clerics who all prayed for his safe return.
Recall that during the abduction, his driver and police orderly were killed by the gunmen who had trailed him to his house.
