Lanre Alewilese, the Nigerian gospel singer, has recounted his divine rescue from a suspected ritualist gang in Lagos.
In a recent interview of the Talk To B podcast, Alewilese revealed how the incident began years ago when a friendly stranger approached him in the Opebi area, Ikeja, where he had gone to print pictures.
According to him, the man, who claimed to be carrying $10 million in a bag, asked for directions to Allen Avenue.
The gang, which Alewilese believed were ritualists, then drove them to Ikeja Along under false pretenses.
I came to Opebi to print some pictures, it was in the days of Blackberry. That is how a man asked for the route to Allen Avenue. I should not have answered him, it was almost like he used jazz on me. He told me he had about $10 million in the bag he was holding and I was like maybe he is part of the people God wants to use to help my ministry,” he said.
He said I should show the route and I followed him, showing him the way until he took me into a corner. They first collected my phone and all the money I wanted to use to print the picture. They then asked me to enter a vehicle which I did. But where God saved me, because they did not appear to be fraudsters, they seemed to be into rituals.
Because there was a lady I met there, her name was Bimpe, she stayed in Oregun and she was also a photographer. So when we stood by the road side, we saw an old woman trying to cross the load with a heavy luggage, we helped her to cross and she gave us $100. Unknown to us, they were all working hand-in-hand.
He said there, the situation grew more sinister when the assailants produced white eggs and, at gunpoint, ordered each captive to break one into their mouth.
While the other captives complied, Alewilese said he refused, explaining that he was observing a church-mandated fast. His defiance caused visible unrest among the kidnappers.
That is how we all entered the vehicle, one man also entered again. They started taking us up and down, they first took us to Ikeja Along and I was like where are you taking us to? I thought you said you wanted to help us to Oregun? I told them that people had already collected my phone, he added.
By the time we got to Ikeja Along, we met those that initially collected my phone from me. They then gave us white eggs to break into our mouths while they pointed guns at us. Everybody else had done it but I refused, I do not know what pushed me maybe it was the prayers we made in church.
Because at the time, they asked all the youths to do a three-day revival with fasting and I was also fasting. That is how they shockingly said they would wait for me till 6pm because they did not want to disrupt my fasting.
We then left Ikeja Along and we were coming back, that is how they dropped me off somewhere and were like they feel restless, that I seem like someone who would put them in trouble.
They threw me from the bus and even one of my palm slippers was left inside. I did not know what to do, I started trying to stop cars on the road to give me a lift to Opebi.
They all thought I was a mad person until I met one of my church members on the road. Funny enough, I was still holding the white egg in my hand and I insisted that I would take it to church. When I broke the egg in church, the inside was totally black.
