19th November, 2012
A popular hotelier in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria, Segun Ayobolu, has closed down all his business outfits in the area following increase in kidnapping in the area.
Ayobolu, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the popular Citi Hotels and Suites and a non-governmental organisation, ‘Feed the Elderly Foundation’ has also directed his lawyers to put his office buildings and the gigantic headquarters of the non-governmental organisation located along Adeola Odutola road, Ijebu Ode, for sale.
A close confidant of the businessman revealed this to our correspondent saying that the spate of kidnapping in the town had gone out of control.
According to the source, “the huge building and Ayobolu’s personal residence in the town are up for sale already and he has briefed his lawyers to put them in the market and get back to him whenever any offer is available.
“He has closed his operational office at Erinlu, Ijebu-Ode and has dismissed all the staff at the Feed the Elderly Foundation in Ijebu-Ode. He has even concluded plans to contact OGTV and OGBC in Abeokuta by next week for announcement on his intention to stop the Feed The Elderly Foundation project in Ogun State.
“It is nonsensical to continue to plough your own earnings into helping people that possibly don’t want you to succeed. The Feed the Elderly Foundation project had been exclusively funded in major parts from his hard earned resources, the huge building and his personal residence in the town are up for sale already.”
“It is indeed crazy to continue to live here after another businessman and friend of his was targeted and abducted less than two months after he was kidnap,” the source said, adding that the over 200 staff on Ayobolu’s payroll have been asked to go home.
When contacted by our correspondent, Segun Oyebolu confirmed that he was leaving Ijebu-Ode and that his decision was based on the increasing cases of kidnapping for ransom of non- indigenes of the town particularly with the kidnap of another businessman, Alhaji Safiriyu Araba, popularly called Aranse Oluwa.
According to him, “Aranse has been a wonderful business person of repute, we were neighbours and chose to settle down in Ijebu-Ode even when we were never indigenes of the town.
“He was just released after his family members parted with a huge sum of money as ransom to bail him out from the hands of his abductors. What made his case more pathetic was that one of his staff made away with several millions of naira in a calculated fraud that left him penniless before his abduction.
“It is indeed a sad commentary that non-indigene business people have now become the prime target of criminals inside the Ijebu Ode township. Aranse and I provided jobs and means of livelihood to scores of indigenes in the area.
“In our private capacities, we created jobs for youths and adults that live in the town. We never discriminated in our employment and have helped scores of people in this town.
“I believe his kidnap is the Ijebu Ode ‘thank you’ message to this benevolent man and several of us that have played roles in its economy or it is an indirect ‘leave-our-town’ message. So it is time to leave.”
He said he now understood why successful indigenes of the state have refused to come back home to develop the town.
“Today, I am wiser and I feel extremely lucky that, though I incurred huge debts coming out of the kidnap, I still have my life and limb. I have paid dearly for doing business here in Ijebu-Ode. I have learnt my lessons, for me, it is good bye to Ijebu-Ode,” Oyebolu submitted.
It would be recalled that Segun Oyebolu of the Citi Hotels and Suites, Ijebu Ode was kidnapped early October in his office at Erinlu road, Ijebu Ode and was not released until his family members paid some amount of money, which according to a very reliable source was huge. ”This man parted with a very huge amount of money, it was something around N10 million that was paid before he regained his freedom,” the source revealed.
Oyebolu was the second person to be abducted in Ijebu Ode after the kidnapped of Dr. (Mrs.) Sola Otulana of the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu who was kidnapped in Agbowa along Ikorodu-Ijebu Ode road in early May this year and his husband, also a medical doctor and owner of Aje Hospital situated along Degun Street, Ijebu Ode was made to pay huge sum of money before his wife could be released.
The latest victim was Alhaji Safiriyu Araba, Chairman of Aranse Oluwa Building Materials, one of the leading building materials dealers in Ogun State who was kidnapped last week Sunday in a mosque after an early prayer and was just released on Saturday afternoon after the family had paid an undisclosed amount of money as ransom.
Efforts by our correspondent to get the view of Alhaji Aranse over his friend’s decision to close down his businesses in the area proved abortive as his telephone lines were not going through as at the time of filing this report.
—Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta