Amid sobs, one of the two abducted students of the Delta State University (DELSU), Mr Divine Omajuwa, has narrated their encounter with kidnappers who killed Stephen Odje and kidnapped him and his girlfriend, Miss Hamza Hussiena Jennifer, last Sunday on their way to Abraka.
He said they were only on their way to Abraka from Warri, and not to resume at school, when their vehicle was waylaid by the gunmen who had earlier missed their target, and, out of anger, swooped on them.
According to him, “I travelled with Hussiena to Warri while Stephen (the deceased) also travelled to Warri separately.
“While I was planning to return, Stephen called me and asked that he join me back to Abraka.”
Omajuwa further stated that while approaching Abraka, they saw a vehicle parked on the road and had assumed that it was as a result of an accident, only to discover, after slowing down, that the car was used by kidnappers to block the road.
He disclosed that as he tried to reverse his Lexus Jeep for a possible escape, the kidnappers engaged them in a shoot-out, adding that his girlfriend, Hussiena, was sitting in front of the vehicle, while Stephen was at the back seat.
Omojuwa said the deceased, Odje, was actually killed accidentally by the gunmen in their attempt to escape.
“They shot my car tyres while trying to shoot at us. They saw that he was already wounded and so left him behind.
“The kidnappers told me that we were not their targets. They said they trailed someone, but lost their target because they were distracted by a truck carrying farmers and so became angry and stayed on the road for any possible victim,” he told an Abraka-based online medium, Oasis Magazine (OM).
He reportedly hinted that two of the farmers, who also fell victim, were still being held back by the kidnappers when they were released.
“We were taken away to an unknown destination. They made contact with my parents before I was released,” he said, adding that he was not aware of his parents parted with a ransom.
Omojuwa, who was said to have wept profusely over the death of his friend, while relating his ordeal, said that the kidnappers conveyed them to a public school close to Abraka after they had had a discussion with his parents.
The Delta State Police Command, through the acting Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Bright Edafe, had earlier confirmed the release of the abducted students to our reporter.
The duo from the departments of Geology and Pharmacology were abducted last Sunday morning along Oria, a community that with less than 15 minutes drive to the university community.
The deceased and duo of Omojuwa and Miss Hamza, who were kidnapped last Sunday, were of the Department of Medical Biochemistry, Geology and Pharmacology of the institution.
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