Sad! How 53-year-old London returnee was killed, dumped in septic tank

After living in London, United Kingdom for most part of his life and raising a family, Kolawole Animashaun decided it was time to return home.

Not sure what to expect, he returned with only one of his daughters, leaving his wife and other children back in London.

For a while, things appeared to be going on well for Kolawole as he gradually gained ground in a business venture. Within two years of his return, he was also able to buy a good property in Surulere area of Lagos State.

With everything going well, Kolawole was contemplating bringing back his entire family from London when the unexpected happened.

Speaking with Vanguard, Kolawole’s daughter recounts ordeal six years after the unfortunate incident.
Lola Animashaun who was with him until he was kidnapped, said on Sunday, July 30, 2016, her father left their Ikorodu home for Surulere with one of his uncles who was sick. By the evening of that day, Lola said his father called to say that he was not returning home. Lola noted that she heard a strange voice in the background during their conversation but didn’t read much meaning to it.

“During the call, I heard a strange laugh at the background. It was a strange and wicked kind of laughter. Immediately, I heard my father say, ‘what do you people mean,’ then he said to me, ‘I will call you back,’ and ended the call,” she narrated.

Lola said she got worried when her father didn’t call back as he promised. “When he didn’t call back, I called him but his phone was switched off. At night, I tried his number but it wasn’t going. I called my uncle whom he had gone to drop and he said that my father had left his house.”

Chat with kidnappers
Unknown to Lola that her father had been kidnapped and his phone seized, she began to chat with the kidnappers believing that she was chatting her father.

“I started chatting with my father’s kidnappers in the middle of the night thinking I was chatting with my father. They replied my chat and told me that he was fine that he went to Aguda to see a friend. On the second day, I called his line but he wasn’t responding. I told him to pick his call that he should no longer chat with me and that I was becoming scared. He replied and said he can’t call and that he was very busy.”

Strange requests
Lola said she got suspicious of the chat with her father when he started asking for his own personal information.

“The person on the other end started asking for vital information of my dad like his account number and I was like ‘of course you know you had locked your door and the key to your room is with you, so how do you expect me to open the door?’ At that point, I told him to pick his call but he still refused. It finally dawned on me then that my father had been kidnapped and that I was chatting with his kidnappers.”

Emotional torment
Continuing her narrative, Lola said she reported that matter to the Police who advised her to continue communicating with the kidnappers while they proceed with their investigation.

“After we reported the matter to the Police, the kidnappers were always sending me scary pictures. Though I was scared for my life but the Police advised that I should continue communicating with them.

“One of them always told me that he was going to pluck out my father’s eyes and give it to the vultures. He also threatened that he was going to butcher my father and that after he was done with him, he will come after me.

“He tormented me emotionally. He always said that I am a wicked and heartless child that I don’t want to sell my father’s property and send him the money.

“I told him that the money is not the problem but that he should just let me hear my father’s voice to know that he is fine. But on and on he was just playing with our intelligence.

N5m ransom
“At first, they demanded N5 million ransom but later reduced it to N2 million. When we couldn’t raise the money, they said we should send N100,000 for my father’s drugs which we did. I also sent them another N100, 000 for recharge card. After that, they told me to sell all my father’s property and send them the money.

“I told them that I wasn’t going to sell anything because it appears that my father has been killed. He told me he was coming after me to show me my father’s corpse and I told him to come because I was already lost and tired. I deleted my WhatsApp because it was our means of communication, I told police I could no longer continue with the chat.

“I was always living in fear, going from church to mosque. I also spent money consulting native doctors all to no avail.”

He told me to get my dad’s drug else he was going to let him die. We sent N10,000 for his drug. After then, we sent him another N100,000 to let him know that we will give him money if he allows us to just hear from my father.

One of the kidnappers kept calling different contacts on my father’s phone, telling them different stories. Although I made a payment to my father’s account number, but unfortunately for him, he forwarded his own account number to one of my dad’s friends.

When we noticed that the Police investigation was not yielding any positive response after we spent a lot of money, one of my aunts asked me to write a petition to DSS office located at Magodo, Lagos.

I wrote the petition, gave them all the necessary information, and they promised to call me back, I was always checking up on them and they promised that they were almost done with their investigation. I became scared along the line because the kidnapper was always telling me that he was coming after me and that he was going to pluck my eyes and my father’s eyes and give to vultures to eat. He said he was going to kill him because I was not ready to drop money. “