Secretary to the Kaduna State Government Mr. Waje Yayok, who was freed by his captors yesterday after 10 days in captivity, was taken by them to the motor park in Warri early yesterday and was placed in a Delta Line bus to Benin, according to family sources in Kaduna. Daily Trust also learnt that the abductors paid the bus fare because the SSG had no money on him, and they even waved goodbye to him as the bus left the motor park.
According to accounts gathered by senior government officials from the freed SSG, he was held in a house in Warri with 30 other people who were also kidnapped from various parts of the country, including three who were abducted with him in Kaduna. Throughout the duration of Yayok’s stay with his captors, the kidnapped men were being freed one by one as ransom was paid by their families. While some families paid as much as N2million to get their fathers freed, some secured their freedom for as little as N250,000, sources said.
A family source also said Mr. Yayok, who is known in Kaduna as a very jovial and playful man, managed to charm his captors, persuaded them that he was a poor civil servant who had no money, and also got into arguments with them over North-South issues. The kidnappers had said Mr. Yayok should be able to pay a ransom in tens of millions of naira because “all the country’s money is in the North.” He however countered that Kaduna State receives only N1.7 billion in statutory allocations a month while Delta State, apparent home base of the kidnappers, receives more than N7 billion a month.
Daily Trust also learnt that when the SSG arrived in Benin, he contacted the State Security Service, whose agents had been hot on the trail of his kidnappers. The SSS men then took him to Benin Airport, flew him to Abuja, and then drove him to the Government House in Kaduna, where he received a very warm welcome from his Cabinet colleagues.
Mr Yayok, who looked healthy but nervous, arrived Government House at 1pm and was immediately taken to see Mr. Patrick Yakowa, the acting governor, at whose office he met with top government and party officials for about two hours. When the meeting ended, Yakowa, Information Commissioner Alhaji Saidu Adamu, PDP state chairman Alhaji Yau Usman and police commissioner Tambari Yabo Mohammed addressed reporters.
Mr Yakowa thanked government officials, security agencies and members of the public for facilitating the SSG’s release. In a short speech, Yayok also said that he has forgiven his kidnappers.
The Kaduna State Government also insisted that no ransom was paid to secure Mr Waje Yayok’s release. Alhaji Umar Sani, Special Adviser to Governor Namadi Sambo on Media and Public Affairs, said Yayok was released when the kidnappers realized that the ransom money was not forthcoming. In addition, he said “the combined efforts of the SSS and the police gave the abductors sleepless nights and they felt that the security agencies were closing in on them and that soon the noose will be tightened around their necks.” Their only option was to free the SSG without any ransom being paid, he said.
Dispelling rumours that Yayok was abducted at a Kaduna hotel, Sani said he was actually abducted “at the junction of studio 40-40 along Barnawa-Narayi junction, very close to his residence.” According to him, Yayok was to proceed on an official assignment the next morning to the southern parts of the state, when about 10 men who were fully clad in army camouflage “abducted himself and four other vehicles, including a Toyota Camry, a jeep , the vehicle of the SSG and a Mercedes Benz that were forced to join a convoy.” The convoy drove straight to Delta State that night, he said.
According to the director general, Yayok was not the abductors’’ target, because the kidnappers only got to know his identity when they saw his Identity Card as the convoy stopped to refuel. He dismissed rumours that the “special assignment” that Yayok was to undertake to Southern Kaduna State was to distribute monetary Sallah gifts from Governor Namadi Sambo. Sani said no such money or gifts were ever sent by the governor and that the SSG had no such money on him when he was abducted.
It will be recalled that there was confusion regarding Yayok’s whereabouts on September 22. While his family members said he had been kidnapped, Kaduna state government insisted that he was sent on an official assignment to southern Kaduna, where he hails from.
The next day, September 23, the state government admitted that Yayok was missing. The Commissioner of Police promised that the SSG will be freed by Thursday, September 24 but Yayok did not reappear until yesterday.