By Charles Igbo
An emotional scene played out when His Royal Highness, Eze Samuel Agunwa Ohiri arrived his Palace on rescue after a two-week harrowing experience in the hands of kidnappers.
Ohiri, the Traditional Ruler of Orodo in the Mbaitoli Local Government Area, Imo State, and the immediate past Chairman of Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers was kidnapped from his Palace on January 7, 2023.
According to reports, Ohiri drove out in the morning of that day with his younger brother, Solomon, who arrived Nigeria from the United States of America to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays with family. But as they drove into the Palace, gunmen stormed and abducted them. In the struggle to push them into the operational vehicle, the younger Ohiri escaped, while the hoodlums made away with the Traditional Ruler.
Until Thursday when he was rescued by Police Operatives of the Imo State Police Command, not a word was heard from Ohiri or his abductors. But the Police persevered.
On Friday, an emotional Ohiri arrived his Community and Palace to a rousing welcome. His subjects, in scores, lined the road to the Palace and mobbed the vehicle he was in. They sang. They danced. They hailed him. They called him a hero. “Our king is back. Welcome back our king.”
As he climbed down from the car, wearing a simple green kaftan made of ankara, and without his beads on the neck, hand or leg, with no crown, obviously stripped of all those by his kidnappers, Ohiri was overcome by emotion. He teared up, and cried, and used his hands to wipe away the tears.
Accompanied by the crowd, he stepped into his expansive compound. Then he did the unexpected.
He knelt down in the middle of the Palace, bent his head, and touched the ground with his forehead. It was in supplication to the Almighty God who saved him, and his ancestors who kept him company while he was in the hands of dangerous gunmen.
