Like a torrent wind, tears gush out of the eyes of a 20-year old young lady, named Joy, as she narrates the ordeal she passed through in the hands of her kidnappers two weeks back.
Joy told BDSUNDAY that she was abducted for over 5hours along Benin-Ore Road on her way to Enugu, the Eastern part of Nigeria from Lagos.
“The driver of our 18-seater bus, which left Jibowu Bus Terminal in Lagos around 6am that fateful Saturday morning, 18 May 2019 to Enugu, was cruising at a speed range of 100 to 120km/ hour because the road that morning was a bit free, devoid of traffic congestion,” Joy said.
“When we left Lagos, our bus only stopped in a gas station located somewhere in Sagamu to refill the vehicle’s tank, and almost all the passengers alighted at that point to stretch their legs while some others went to the gents and ladies to ease themselves. As God may have it, we were able to pass Ore in Ondo State at 11am, meaning that we were half way to Onitsha in Anambra State at that point.
“Few kilometers into Edo State, on approaching the popular Okada Junction, our driver started negotiating left to right without control on sudden bump into the blockade made by the hoodlums, and the passengers started to shout Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! The vehicle at that point was forced to stop in the middle of the highway.
“Low and behold, five-hefty men with guns suddenly ambushed our bus and ordered all the passengers to come down, lie down flat with their hands on their heads. People were also asked to submit their phones and monies in their position without hesitation.
“After that, five of us including myself were taken into the bush where we were brutally assaulted by our abductors such that some of us sustained terrible degrees of injuries and in my case, my left foot was badly injured after it was smashed with the head of the gun. I saw so many other captives, who were mostly travellers kidnapped on that route as well. People were also forced to say how much they think their families could pay as ransom for their release.
“We were released 5 hours later after a traumatic and terrifying experience in the hands of our abductors. They collected our phones and access codes, ATM cards with our pin numbers as well as our monies.
“Before four of us were released, some members of the gang went to the nearest ATM machine and made withdrawals with our debit cards. Initially, they wanted to take me across the river, where the gang was holding people captive, but God made them change their mind, that was how I was released with three others while the remaining two persons were taken into captive.
“Unfortunately, it was after we were released that I realised that about four other 18-seater buses were captured by the hoodlums that particular Saturday and that men of the Nigeria Police Force only arrived at the scene of the abduction hours after some of us were able to make it out of the loins’ den (bush).
“Though, I was able to make it out of the bush alive that was the most terrifying experience I have ever had in my life. We were left without a kobo to be able to find our way and no phone to even contact our loved ones. But in the midst of the agonizing pains, the police officers at the Igbenedion University Okada Police station insisted we must write a report (statement), which we did.”
BDSUNDAY recalls that in the last eight years (two administrations ago), Nigeria has been encumbered by serious security challenges, which has grown to become a huge threat to national security.
It began with the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, which started in the North East part of the country. They also terrorised the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) leaving behind tears and blood. Since the advent of the insurgent group, there have been mindless killings and abduction perpetrated by the Boko Haram.
The menace of the Boko Haram insurgents has been worsened by the activities of an equally dangerous and wicked set, called the Fulani-herdsmen. These herdsmen have left thousands of Nigerians dead, particularly in the Middle Belt and some parts of South-east geo-political zone of the country.
The killer Fulani herdsmen appear to have changed tactics. They have added abduction to their heinous acts. Today, we hear and read about kidnapping and banditry, and many Nigerians are being sent to their early graves through the reckless activities of these groups of hoodlums in Nigeria.
Aside from Joy, a middle-aged woman, named Beatrice, recently gave a mind-blowing testimony in a church programme, where she narrated a real life story of how God saved her son from the hands of Fulani-herdsmen that ambushed and nearly killed him and his friend.
“My son, who is schooling in Barkin Ladi Polytechnic in Jos, called me on phone to tell me something. He first asked that I should not panic and started narrating his ordeal. My son said he went to swim with his friend in a river located in a close-by village to his school, without knowing that Fulani-herdsmen had set an ambush there. Unknown to them, about 15 armed Fulani men surrounded and arrested them,” she said.
“My son said their abductors asked them to remove their clothes without having anything on. He has a tribal mark that makes him look like Hausa, and on sighting the mark, he was told to recite ‘Our Father, who art in heaven’ in Moslem way but, my son became confused because he is not a Moslem.
“At that point, the leader of the gang told his boys to waste my son and his friend without delay, but as the 15-herdsmen released their guns, the bullet refused to release and the guns remained silent. This made my sons’ abductors to become afraid, and the gang had to give their clothes back to them, and asked them to leave the forest,” she narrated.
Meanwhile, amid tears, a female senior lecturer (name withheld) in one of the tertiary institutions in Rivers State, recently gave a detail account of her ordeals in the hands of kidnappers. She recounted how she was raped in the forest of Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers and miraculously escaped from the kidnappers’ den.
On that Friday afternoon at the 6 Division of Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt shortly after Col. Aminu Iliyasu, deputy director, Army public relations, handed over the three men who confessed to have kidnapped her to SARS.
She said: “I was with my children and my husband’s cousin in my house in Port Harcourt on April 30, 2019. They were all sleeping in the room and I was washing clothes with machine at the balcony around 8pm and at the same time, watching a programme on Zee World. The main gate to our house was locked, but the protector was open, since I still had to go downstairs to get water”.
“Suddenly, I noticed the protector opened slightly while still wondering who it was, because if it was my husband, he would horn for me to open the main gate for him. The next thing I saw was the key to the main door opened. Then, two guys pointed a gun at me. One of them cocked the gun and asked after my husband, whom I said, was not back from work.”
She said she was asked by her abductors to cooperate to avoid being killed. “They collected my ATM card and PIN, and asked of cash, and I said I do not have but offered to give them gold that could be sold for close to N50, 000 and they refused to take it.
“They took our television set and laptop before they took me away in my vehicle and drove away. The kidnappers put my head under the car seat and drove off and I did not know the direction they followed because my head was below the seat. We got to a place that was not motorable and came down and headed to the bush.
“I was paid salary that same day. I told them to let me give them the salary and one of them brought an account number, which I forwarded my salary N59, 000 to. As we were still going inside the bush, he called someone to confirm the payment.
“We got to a river (the level of which) got to my knees. The leader pulled his trousers but I had to carry my dress up. That night, we spent about two hours in the bush, just moving around and I was barefooted because they refused me from wearing slippers and that made me to sustain injuries on the way.
“I was later blindfolded till we got to a place where we stayed for the night. I slept on bare floor in the open forest that night. The next morning, one of the guys left, leaving one, who finally raped me against my will.
“Though, it was inside the bush but I could hear the sound of passing vehicles. When it rained heavily, we were in the rain. I was completely wet and later became very cold.
“Later, another one came and asked me to eat in order not to die in the forest but I refused. They later brought food, water and drink. I refused to eat but took only the water.
The eldest seemed nicer as he promised not to rape me but he was surprised when he confirmed that his colleague had already raped me. He said it was not in their culture to rape their victims. He also said that they would not have abducted me if they had seen up to N500, 000.
She said, the abductor said teachers’ ransom was N5 million, but promised to release me if my husband could raise N3 million.
“Around 7 pm. on Wednesday, they called my husband, who said he had no money again since they had collected the over N100, 000 he had with the ATM card. We later relocated to another place where we slept that night.
“My escape was miraculous as one went to sleep, while the other took his phone and went away. I waited for a while, the one that went to make calls did not return and I saw it as an opportunity to escape. That was how I ran away and was able to make it out of the bush to the main road where I saw people that helped me”, she narrated.
On daily basis, different people from different locations tell tales of how they were abducted, manhandled, assaulted and ransom paid on their heads before they got released. It is said that for 10 people that are lucky to make it alive after being kidnapped, there are about two or more cases of those who never return alive.
Today, the nation’s highways have become so dangerous that people are afraid to travel outside their base. The Abuja-Kaduna road has been declared a lions’ den. Lagos-Ibadan road; Lagos-Sagamu road; Ibadan-Ife road; Ore-Benin road, name it, they have all become increasingly dangerous.
Precisely, Nigeria has one of the world’s highest rates of kidnap-for-ransom cases such that Mohammed Adamu, Inspector-General of Police said recently that at least 685 persons were kidnapped across the country between January and April, 2019.
The IGP further disclosed that 546 kidnappings representing 79.8 percent of the national total were recorded in the three northern geopolitical zones. He said the highest zonal prevalence rate occurred in the North-West where 365 persons were reportedly kidnapped within the period under review.
This was followed by the North-Central geopolitical zone where 145 persons were kidnapped. Zamfara State has the highest national kidnap rate with 281 victims in what has been directly linked to the activities of bandits in the state.
This was followed by Kogi and Niger states where 65 and 51 persons, respectively were kidnapped within the period.
Chioma Ezeh, a Lagos-based journalist with one of the national dailies told BDSUNDAY that two years ago, she boarded an marked cab in Victoria Island, but unknown to her, the passengers in the cab were all members of ‘419’ gang, popularly known as “One Chance”. They took her to an unfamiliar area of the state.
Ezeh said her abductors took her to an unknown building where she was robbed of all her possession and was told to use her ATM card to make withdrawals after she was told that they could print several notes of naira. She was also threatened with death if she disclosed to anyone what transpired. After several hours in the hands of her abductors, she was taken by two of them to a nearby ATM machine to withdraw money. It was on their way that it now dawned on her that she was in the wrong hand, and “I told them that I needed to make call to my husband before I could go to the bank but they refused.”
“We continued the journey to the ATM machine when we sighted a police officer on the way, they became agitated and started disappearing one after the other because they thought I was going to give them away to the police. Then, one of them quickly told me to crossover and take Oshodi if I wanted to go. But I ignored him and used the opportunity to jump into a loaded commercial vehicle that stopped by me. That’s how I escaped,” she said.
In his own case, Olayinka Adegbehingbe, a professor and orthopaedic surgeon with the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in Osun, was on Sunday 5 May 2019 abducted by gunmen, along Ife-Ibadan Expressway.
Narrating his experience, he said his abductors captured and took him to the bush, where they requested for N30 million ransom for his release.
“I told them to take less because I could not afford the sum they requested. We finally settled for N10 million and it was at that point that we started mobilising funds, but they later collected N5.045 million cash from me before I was released,” he disclosed.
According to him, his abductors were seven in number and were all Fulanis and that they had four guns with multiple rounds of ammunition.
Reacting to this, Edward Komolafe, chairman, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Osun State said the time has come for the Federal, State and Local Governments to beef up security in the country.
A Lagos based pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God, who gave his name as Adeyemi, recently told BDSUNDAY of how God miraculously rescued his son’s best friend from the hands of his abductors, who obviously were ritualists.
According to the pastor, the young boy boarded a commercial bus along Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Abule Egba bus stop, without knowing that the bus driver and the passengers were kidnappers.
The abducted young man only woke up to see himself in an unknown bush where other captives were lined-up for ritual. He said he saw a ‘Babalawo’ (native doctor) making incantations in preparation to sacrifice the captives.
“When it got to his turn the Babalawo shouted, ‘who brought this man here’. ‘This is a bad sacrifice, take him out of here’. It was then that his abductors quickly took him out of the forest and ordered him to keep running without looking back. The young man was able to get help on the road and he got home wearing only boxers and singlet,” the pastor narrated.
Kidnapping, no doubt, is a global problem with many root causes, including unemployment, poverty, religion, and politics. Pundits believe that each of these root causes must be evaluated and addressed in order to eliminate this terrible scourge in the society.
However, countries like Nigeria can fight kidnapping successfully by hiring and training capable agents. It is believed that if the nation’s law enforcement agencies are actively involved in the fight, the incidences of such crimes would be reduced.
It has also been proven that some security agents are also complicit, as they are also involved in kidnapping activities.
It has been said that mild punishment does not deter criminals, which is why government needs to treat kidnappers with all the strength it can muster to crush them. However, it is said that the most effective way of fighting crime is to nip it in the bud. This is in line with the popular saying that it is easier to kill a cub than to kill a full grown lion. The Federal Government has been accused of handling the insecurity challenge with kid glove.
Therefore, creation of jobs for citizens, especially for the youth, and enabling environment for businesses to thrive, would go a long way in stemming the dangerous tide of insecurity in Nigeria.
