Six months after 34-year-old mother of four, Mrs. Elizabeth Oputa, was kidnapped from a pharmacy in Asaba, Delta State, she said she has been in and out of hospitals. She has been having panic attacks, and had barely escaped another kidnap attempt. She relived her experience in this interview by ALPHONSUS AGBORH. Excerpts:
how did you feel when you were taken away from the pharmacy on that fateful day?
I was not fine when I saw them. I was very sick when they came into the clinic where I went for treatment. They ordered everybody in the clinic to lie face down, but one of them asked to know the owner of the car parked outside and they got to know it belonged to me. That was how I was abducted.
How many days did you spend in the kidnappers’ custody?
I spent about a week in the place they kept me inside an unfinished building with a lot of trauma, threats, and plenty of questions. I saw about 11 men with guns. They changed duties. I observed there were workers, including tillers and security men.
Were you held in the bush?
I can’t really tell because we went from streets to expressway then to the bush, from the bush back to the streets in a stony environment. But in the end, I saw myself in a building.
What were the eleven people doing in the building?
They were in the same kind of business. They put on hand gloves at different times. When we got there, at the building, I met all manners of people. The Keke man who controlled the journey, the security man who opened the gate, and so on.
Did they kill anybody in your presence?
No.
Did they bring in more people within that one week?
They went out for operations, but they didn’t bring their victims to the place where they kept me.
How many people were kept with you?
Each person was put in a different location.
Were you molested?
I was not actually molested because one of them understood my language so I started talking to him. He was like a shield, protecting me.
Were there other women among the abductees?
Not to my knowledge.
Were you given food throughout the period of your abduction?
Yes, I was. They brought food that was, maybe, bought from ‘mama put’ elsewhere, but I didn’t eat. l never ate their food or drank water because I lost appetite.
Throughout the one week, did you sleep at all?
There is no way I could sleep under that traumatic experience, when I was missing my family.
So, one of them spoke your language…
It was not really my language; I understood his language, that is Hausa. He was a Hausa man. He should be about 30 years old.
So he treated you well because you understand his language?
That was after the third day in their captivity, when I was not talking. At one point, I was bleeding and he found out about it. He called on his colleagues that I wanted to die, speaking, Hausa. That was when I sought to know where he was from and why he was doing this.
Why were you bleeding?
Maybe as a result of the trauma or the injuries I had when I was forcibly pulled out of the car. It was not normal menstruation.
How I negotiated her freedom —Husband
Her husband, Mr. Victor Oputa, who was equally benumbed and traumatised, narrated the torturous journey of getting his wife out of the kidnappers’ den and also described the one-week experience.
“On May 21, 2021, the kidnappers established contact. They initially demanded the sum of N50million. They threatened to kill my wife if I failed to pay the ransom.
“After much pleadings and negotiations, they finally agreed to collect an amount, but this was on the understanding that I would pay the negotiator, one Aminu Jalo, separately from the ransom.
“Based on the understanding, they asked me to bring the ransom to a petrol station by the Summit Junction area in Asaba.
“As I got to the petrol station, I was asked to proceed to Okpanam community.
“When I got to Okpanam, I was told to keep driving along the Asaba – Benin Expressway. They called me again when I was at Ubulu Okiti and directed me to return to Asaba and meet them at Summit Junction, Asaba.
“I called them and informed them that I was at the Summit Junction, Asaba and they called me back after 30 minutes and asked me to come down from the vehicle, carry the N2million ransom and start walking from Summit Junction to Mariam Babangida Way, Asaba.
“When I was almost at Mariam Babangida Way, I called them and they asked me to cross over to the other side of the road and turn and start coming back towards Summit Junction again.
“When I got to the junction, by Kim Royal Hotel Road, they initially asked me to wait by the junction and then later instructed that I enter the Kim Royal Hotel Road.
“I was directed to enter another street between the Kim Royal Hotel and the Redeemed Christian Church of God. After making me walk for some minutes, they asked me to drop the ransom at an electricity pole about 15 meters away from a woman frying akara by the roadside. I dropped the ransom and left.
“At about 10.30 p.m. on May 21, 2021, they sent me a text message that I should proceed to Asaba airport before the NNPC filling station to pick my wife.
“A few minutes after I received the message, my wife called me with the mobile telephone of a Good Samaritan, who had helped her identify where she was.
“I then drove to Edu China Street, where she was and picked her up.
“Since her release, she has been in and out of hospital. She has been having trauma.
“The one-week period was the longest period of my life. The children often asked me when their mum would come back and I kept assuring them that she would be back. It was an experience no one should wish even for their enemy.”