Residents and workers of Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, Lagos State, were excited on Wednesday as they rolled out the drums to celebrate the return of their chairman, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan.
Bamigbetan was kidnapped on Tuesday, April 14 by four gunmen said to be unemployed graduates on his way home. He was only released last Saturday by his abductors after spending six days in their den.
For the residents and workers, it was praises galore.
After his release, Bamigbetan had said his captors asked him to tell the country's leadership to provide jobs for the ever-increasing numbers of unemployed graduates in the country.
He also said he was tortured severely when he told his abductors that he did not have the E1m ransom they demanded for his ransom.
The joy of the residents, particularly the women groups, knew no bounds as they paced from place to place enthusiastically to celebrate Bamigbetan's safe return.
The thanksgiving was attended by monarchs, friends, workers, residents, political associates, religious leaders and traders' unions.
Bamigbetan, who was in a euphoric mood, bantered with well-wishers and danced away with his wife as music by Christians and Muslims blared out.
He seized the opportunity to tell those who had yet to hear his experience during his captivity.
Bamigbetan said in the last three days, he had discovered that traumatic experiences like that could leave scars, not only on one's body but mainly, on one's mind.
The council boss said, "As I stand here, I still carry with me the trauma of being beaten till blood oozed from my nostrils while the hands I could have used to wipe them were tied to the arms of the chair of punishment.
"I carry the scars of being turned into a reptile, demoted to lying prostrate on the floor like a lizard, while the eyes I ought to use to find my way were blindfolded and all I could see was pitch and darkness.
"I cannot forget the coldness of the violent steel, the AK-47 pressed against my cheek, then put into my mouth to actualise the idea of biting the bullet. These scars are now part of my psyche. They form part of the story that I will carry to old age. Yet, from this same pot of blackness arose a kindness so rare and outstanding that it could only have come from the grace of the Almighty; from the mercy of the Creator."
He said this was the outcome of the prayers that arose from the mouths of men and women across all faiths united in the conviction that the Devil would be defeated.
He added, "If not, how can we explain the captors who were turned into servants to dote on me and attend to my menial needs? How do I account for the free chef and the free chauffeur services that fed and ferried me to the bosom of my wife, children and family?
"In the space of five days, God showed that the powers of darkness may reign but the reign will be only for a short time, that the devious rule will be cut short by the forces of goodness..
All of us seated here today, workers, community leaders; politicians are the forces of goodness whose prayers and activism crushed the forces of darkness. All of us here today, who worked individually and collectively to ensure that evil does not occupy our land are the movement and vanguard for the change that we all desire."
He said the spiritual rebirth had recharged his conviction to serve mankind and rescue the country from the hands of the renegades that had held the country down.
He commended the press for their firebrand and wonderful reporting of his kidnap saga, praying that God would reward them for their efforts.
In his exhortation, the Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria, Ejigbo Chapter, Archbishop Peter Fabusoro, urged the chairman to rededicate his life to God, saying it was God who made his release possible.
"Last week, the enemy thought Bamigbetan had been swallowed, but we thank God, he is here with us. We are celebrating him instead of mourning him. Today, the wife is smiling but when I got to their house last week, she was weak. The Almighty deserves all the praise," the cleric said.
On his part, his Muslim counterpart, Sheik Muisideen Alawiyo, thanked Allah for Bamigbetan's safe return.
He advocated peace and unity in the country, saying with the way things were going, it looked as if there was absence of unity in the nation.
