I Paid Huge Ransom to be Released, Laments Musician

By Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
 

Popular Edo musician, Osayomore Joseph, yesterday, disclosed how he paid huge ransom before he was released by his abductors.

 Osayomore was kidnapped on October 4, spent one month in abduction following his release on November 4, with his wife shot during the abduction. 

The musician who was kidnapped after performing during the first anniversary coronation of Oba Ewuare II, Oba of Benin, spoke for the first time about his ordeals in an interview with a local television station, saying he was taken to a forest in a creek after travelling on the high sea. 

Osayomore described his ordeals as traumatic and not an experience to be remembered. 

The veteran musician said he has narrated his experience in his new album titled “30 days and 30 nights in the evil forest” set to be launched tomorrow. 

According to him, “I was dragged through the forest close to Gelegele and taken on a boat to a creek. I have never stepped my legs on a boat before. The speed boat on the high sea was enough to give me high blood pressure. 

“The kidnappers called themselves forest soldiers. Those who came to kidnap me did not know me. It was when I got to the creek that some learned ones started singing my old songs. They did not know that I started fighting before they were born.

“They may have overestimated me that I am very rich. They collected money from me. I may not mention the amount but it was colossal. That will not deter me from doing what I know how to do best.”I did not know I will come back alive. I later know I will not die there when they started asking for money. 

The ransom was collected on the high sea.

“They called the boat that brought the ransom money freedom boat. I was on an evil boat. After they brought the bags containing huge sums of money, the kidnappers checked it and that was how I came back.”