An Akure-based legal practitioner, Tayo Olofinbinu, who was abducted with some ten others along the Benin-Ifon road while returning from a burial ceremony in Edo state, has narrated his ordeal after regaining his freedom.
While recounting his experience in captivity, Olofinbinu said the gunmen, in their number, stopped their vehicles, brandishing AK-47 rifles, and ordered all the occupants of the vehicle out into the forest.
He explained that two people escaped from the kidnappers while nine of them including a couple were marched into the bush, after a serious beating.
The victim, who is still recuperating after being discharged from the hospital, said the couple tried to escape from the kidnappers’ camp but were unlucky saying the man was shot by the kidnappers.
He said another victim who the kidnappers said was not cooperating with them was inflicted with a deep machete cut on the head and expressed fear that the victim might not survive the injury, as he was nearly dead by the time he was released.
The lawyer said they were only allowed to speak with their relatives after three days in captivity and they were only fed bread and soft drinks after four days with the abductors.
He said, “I was fortunate not to have been touched throughout my time in captivity. But they (kidnappers) treated most of us badly.
“They hit some of us repeatedly with their machetes and even inflicted a deep cut on the head of one of us.
“The man was already pale by the time he was released on the fourth day. I doubt if he would survive the injury.
“There was another man who tried to escape with his wife one night, thinking that the kidnappers had slept. But the wife’s movement must have alerted them (kidnappers). They shot the man dead instantly.”
He, however, said he was released unhurt on the fifth day after payment of ransom, saying he also pay the ransom of a few of his fellow abductees.
He disclosed that he was slightly familiar with only one other abductee, who live in his neighbourhood, while the rest were not known to him prior to their abduction.
Recalling how they fell into the hands of the kidnappers, he said, “We travelled in a convoy with a police escort while going, but we couldn’t wait for the convoy on our return because we wanted to avoid travelling at night, only for us to run into the kidnappers who had laid siege on the road.
It will be recalled that 11 people who were returning from a burial ceremony were abducted around Ifon, demanding N90m for the release of the victims.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then