Iskilu Wakili, the Fulani leader who was arrested by members of the O’odua Peoples Congress (OPC) on Sunday, said he was dragged away from his sickbed, stripped naked and thrown into a vehicle of the OPC.
He made the claim while speaking at the State Criminal Investigation Department of the Nigeria Police Force, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Monday.
Wakili has been accused of being a leader of armed Fulani herders who attack farmers and destroy their farmland in Ibarapa area of Oyo State. He was arrested by OPC members at the Kajola area of Ibarapa on Sunday.
But the elderly man denied having any link with the kidnappers.
According to him, he has been a victim of kidnapping, explaining that he was forced to pay ransom for the release of his sons at a time.
He also claimed that he fainted several times after his arrest, having been ill for some time and been in hospital in Benin Republic.
He said: “Sometime last year, two of my children were kidnapped and I paid millions of naira as ransom before they were released. I am not a kidnapper.”
“Two days after my return from hospital (in Cotonou, Republic of Benin), I was lying down because I was ill and suddenly some women came and started shouting that armed OPC men had come looking for me.
“I asked them to flee but I could not run because I was sick. Two men later came and picked me from where I was lying down, they threw me in their vehicle naked. I fainted many times before they drove me to the police station in Igboora. From there we were taken to SCID, Ibadan.
“I am not a criminal, my children are not criminals. I don’t know anything about kidnapping or any crime. I have many cows and I know they stray into farms at times but I don’t have criminal records anywhere and this can be investigated. After they took me away from my home, a woman, Tande, was killed.”
Ngozi Onadeko, the Oyo Commissioner of Police, stated that Wakili was arrested by the OPC members without committing any known crime.
She appealed to residents of the state to partner with the police to fight insecurity and not ascribe criminal activities or criminals to ethnic affiliation.
She said: “I keep telling you to stop giving ethnic colouration to crime. The question is this, was there any crime committed? It is not a question of whether they were Yoruba and Ibos.
“They had been trying to arrest Wakili. They said they arrested Wakili and two others. But the issue is that as the OPC people left, they set the camp on fire and shot a woman on her stomach. Her intestine gushed out and the woman died. That was basically what happened on Sunday.
“My appeal is that we should all come together to fight crime. Give us credible information. Anybody who has complaint against Wakili, this is the best time to lodge complaints so that he can be investigated. Wakili is in the custody.”
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