Pedro Obaseki, former managing director of Daar Communications and chief executive officer (CEO) of Hosamudia Farm, has narrated how he was “abducted and assaulted” by suspected thugs in Benin City, Edo State.
Pedro, a cousin of Godwin Obaseki, former governor of Edo,
was attacked on Sunday while playing football with friends at Uwa Primary
School in Benin.
A video of the incident, which has since gone viral, showed
Pedro being beaten, stripped naked, and dragged to the palace of the Oba of
Benin, where he was made to kneel at the gate.
Speaking hours after his release, Pedro said the
“assailants” invaded the football field and forcibly took him away.
He said he repeatedly asked the attackers to identify
themselves but was instead beaten and dragged through major streets in the
city.
Pedro described the incident as deeply humiliating and
traumatic, adding that he was made to kneel in public glare.
“While playing football with my football mates at Uwa
Primary School in Benin, the place was attacked by assailants and I was
physically abducted,” he said.
“I was basically kidnapped. Some of them were holding guns,
some of them known thugs, luckily I have their names, and they hauled me
through the streets of Benin under the guise that they’ve been sent to abduct
me by the palace of the Oba of Benin.
“I begged them to show me some form of ID. But I was
dragged, beaten severely, manhandled and dragged through streets up to Ring
Road where I was stripped naked and taken into the palace.
“I was meant to kneel in full public glare. I’ve never been
so humiliated. I am who I am because of my nativity. I’ve served my culture and
now I don’t know what to say.
“I was later released and taken to a police station where
the commissioner of police came to see me three times before he ordered my
release from the police station at Oba market road.”
Pedro added that from his interaction at the palace, it
appeared the attackers were not acting on the instructions of the Oba.
He claimed the alleged reason for the attack was a public
statement he made in London.
“From the countenance I met at the palace, it was clear that
they did not send these people on this message. I am traumatised. I’m
distraught,” he added.
“And I heard that my sin was that I went to London and in a
public statement I said, ‘may Edo people live long and prosper,’ but instead I
should have said that may the Oba live long and prosper.
“They said that is a cardinal sin in Benin for me, who
has elevated the culture of the Benin race in my 35 to 40 years as the pioneer
of the present Nollywood.”
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