University don, Prof. Johnson Fatokun says the Fulani men that kidnapped him last Monday threatened to transfer him to Boko Haram if his family and employers did not cooperate in ransom negotiations.
Fatokun, who is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Deeper Life Christian Ministry (DLCM)-owned Anchor University, Lagos, disclosed this while narrating his three-day ordeal in the kidnappers’ den.
The 55-year-old disclosed that he was returning to his base in Keffi, Nasarawa State after he went to drop off his children that were resuming academic activities in Jos, Plateau State when the incident occurred.
Fatokun disclosed that the assailants, who were dressed in military fatigues, attacked his vehicle around 9 pm on Monday.
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The university don said he was with a junior colleague when the kidnappers struck by first releasing several shots into his vehicle.
Fatokun noted that the colleague was beaten silly and left for dead by the kidnappers because he refused to follow them.
He disclosed that the kidnappers, who switched off his phone, led him deep into the bush and put on the phone intermittently when they wanted to speak with his people for negotiations.
“They said I should let them know who they should call, because all they wanted was money. They said they could not leave me, because they were responsible to the people, who lent them the guns and they must pay back. They carried sophisticated weapons. They spoke Fulfulde; they are Fulani. One of them spoke English faintly,” he told The Punch.
According to him, the kidnappers spoke with a senior pastor of his church in Keffi and demanded N20 million with a threat that he would be executed the next day if the ransom was not paid by the next day.
Fatokun, who said the kidnappers led him deep into the bush until it was 3 am, noted that “they went to somebody’s farm and harvested yam. They asked me if I would eat, but I declined. We slept in the open till around 5/6am then continued the trek to the mountainous part of the forest.
“They switched on my phone anytime they wanted to continue negotiation with the pastor. When the discussion did not go down well at a time, their leader came and said they would transfer me to the Boko Haram camp and he was no longer interested in money.”
Fatokun was however freed on the third day following discussions.