Nollywood filmmaker and former Managing Director of Daar Communications, Don Pedro Obaseki, has narrated his ordeal following an alleged abduction and assault in Benin City, Edo State.
Obaseki, who is a cousin of former Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, was reportedly attacked on Sunday by youths suspected to be thugs while he was at a football field in the city.
Recounting the incident, Obaseki said the attack occurred while he was playing football with friends.
“Today at about 11–11:30, while playing football with my football mates at UBA Primary School in Benin, the place was attacked by assailants.
“I was physically abducted, basically kidnapped. Some of them were holding guns and some of them were non folks. I have their names.
“They hogged me through the streets of Benin under the guise that they had been sent to come and abduct me by the palace of the Oba of Benin.
“I begged them to show me some form of ID. I was dragged, beaten severely, manhandled, and dragged through the streets up to where I was stripped naked and taken into the palace of the Oba of Benin, where I was made to kneel in public.”
He described the experience as deeply humiliating and emotionally distressing.
“I have never been so humiliated because I am who I am, because of my nativity. I have served my culture. I don’t know what to say. I was later released and taken to the police station, where the Commissioner of Police came within two hours. He came to see me three times before he ordered my release from the police station at Oba Market. From the chiefs I met at the palace, it was clear they did not send these people on this mission.”
Obaseki also suggested that the incident may have stemmed from a cultural misunderstanding linked to comments he allegedly made abroad.
“I am traumatised. And I heard that my sin was that I went to London and made a public statement that ‘May Edo people live long and prosper.’ That I should have said, ‘May the Oba live long and prosper.’ That my saying ‘may Edo people live long and prosper’ is a cardinal sin in Benin, for me who have elevated the culture of the Benin race in my 35 to 40 years as the pioneer of the present.”
As of the time of filing this report, there has been no official response from the palace of the Oba of Benin regarding the allegations.
