IVITE AGULERI YOUTH CHAIRMAN SHARES STORY OF HOW HE WAS KIDNAPPED BY FULANI HERDSMEN.
By 𝐃𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐛𝐢 𝐎𝐤𝐨𝐧𝐤𝐰𝐨
The Youth Chairman of Ivite Aguleri Anambra State, Mr Odikpo Nwekwu (Wowo), has shared his experiences in the hands of suspected Fulani kidnappers who abducted him along the Ayamelum- Adani -Opanda way after stopping the commercial vehicle he boarded with his cousin, Mr Okemmili Ndigwe.
Speaking in an interview with OMT, Mr Wowo who stays in Aguleri, Anambra State, noted that they were abducted by the assailants on Sunday, 13th August 2023 and were released on Thursday 17th August 2023 around 4: 30 pm.
The victim said he was sure they were Fulani herdsmen because they spoke the language and were young boys.He added, "Everything happened very fast, I must say. They shot at the commercial vehicle and our driver stopped. They came straight to the back seat where only me and my cousin were occupying because we paid for the four back seats". "They used cutlass to shatter the back screen of the bus and asked other passengers to give way as they dragged only two of us out of the vehicle leaving other passengers, except a co Driver who attempted to run. "
"I suspected that the Kidnappers had an Intel because, the Driver of the first shuttle bus we chartered at Aguleri junction knew us by our names. He even asked us why we did not drive our private car. We alighted at Adani before we boarded the public vehicle, paid for the whole four seats at the back".
"When the Kidnappers came, they pointed at only two of us and asked other passengers to give way for us and they abducted us leaving other passengers".
"It was just like a dream, honestly. The guys were fast. It was not even up to five minutes and the Fulani guys just came out and attacked us and abducted us".
“There were about four of them at first, shooting AK47.So, while we were still struggling to come out from the bus, another one joined them and we could not run because the attackers came from the two sides".
"We couldn’t do anything to them as they dragged us out of the bus and we landed on the ground where others were waiting to receive us".
"When I found myself in that position, I just told myself that the end had come. I couldn’t struggle with them from that position again. That was how they took us inside the bush. We walked for more than 3 hours on foot inside the thick forest and through the water till we got to their hideout a thick forest which had no building"
"Later on, they told us they were kidnappers who were not scared of death. They threatened that if our people did not pay ransom of forty million naira ( #40,000,000) they would kill us. They told us that they picked only calls from Airtel lines, to avoid being tracked by the security agencies".
"Their leader behaved like a graduate with good command of English language, he usually briefed somebody outside the scene in English language. As we were negotiating, he was constantly stepping aside to brief somebody in English language and I was over hearing him".
“After they saw that there was no way in the world we could afford N40 million, they reduced it to N20million. Our people begged them for N3million, but they said even if they collected the N3million, they would still kill us. We kept changing locations from one thick forest to the other, our hands were tied with ropes and rain was beating us".
"We were so scared. They kept saying it was ransom that was holding us. At around 8 am, on Thursday, we left that place and went back to another location barefoot, where they told me to negotiate with my people"
"They concluded at N6 Million and my people told them that the money was ready. They said they should bring it to the location at Opanda. As we waited, no minute passed without them smoking hard drugs. I was so scared of my life.”
"We were released at about 4:50 PM on Thursday after paying a ransom of N6million naira. I learnt that the driver who was abducted alongside with us also paid a ransom of #200,000".
" As we were returning home on the motorcycle, I was praying that they would not shoot us from behind. My people received me at Adani -Opanda road. We suffered mosquito bites and drank impure water. We survived because we grew up in a farm. Otherwise, we might not have left the bush alive".
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