Immediately after Imo State boundary on the way to Port Harcourt, the first Rivers State town is Omerelu. From there, the traveller gets to Elele. The place has become the latest hotbed of kidnapping in Rivers State. Every four days, an 18-seater bus is captured and diverted to the forest.
This is an inside account of what happens there, from the excruciating experience of a freed lady.
If the police were doing debriefing from victims, they would have gathered enough intelligence to form an opinion.
Below is the diary of a lady victim:
It was Saturday, July 24, 2019. The brother of her boss dropped her off and she boarded a Sienna bus in Owerri, Imo State. They left at about 8am. They were 18 passengers and the driver; 19 in all.
There was an old woman and a woman with a baby and two other ladies. They passed Imo boundary and about 20 minutes later, a group of boys jumped out from the bush, shooting. They were everywhere, fully armed. They marched everyone down out of the bus and into a footpath, blindfolded.
Strange: How did the driver and four boys get off? The attack could not have given room for anyone to escape, so how did these ones get off? Suspicion: They must be accomplices. It means some of those travelling with you or even the driver is a kidnapper.
In the bush, they passed many farmers going to their farms, not interested in strangers being marched to the forests. So, our farms now have human crops. They later settled at a spot and kept them in one place.
Lesson: The villagers know everything. Why have the security agencies not harvested this source of information? They are waiting for the villagers to come to them and lodge reports? Too bad; such a system of intelligence gathering!
They stayed in the bush till night, then they were marched across a major road then to another camp far from there. Inside the camp, they kept them in a tent. Rains would fall, etc.
Rape: Their leaders come and go. They do not reside in the bushes. When they came that morning, the two leaders picked two girls and asked them to bathe, and gave them sleeping gowns. They took them to a nearby corner. Everybody heard the screaming and the action noises. When they left, the ordinary boys began to grumble; that their juju was against raping their victims; that the one that raped was from another community, etc. They slapped the girls they raped severally for giving in. Imagine twisted logic.
Process: The leaders come and go. They bring phone to any victim whose family members wanted to talk with. They go back to the towns to do the coordination.
Loot: When they get paid, they bring shares to the boys in the bush; in one instance, N15,000 was shared to each of them.
Release: Three persons were first to be released; the old woman, the woman with a baby and one other. Their people must have paid up. The second batch was six persons. They marched them to a bush near Elele town, asked them to keep straight, never to deviate to avoid being re-kidnapped. It was early in the morning.
They entered the town and some vigilantes picked them up and helped some of them to make calls to their family members they could remember off hand. This was on the 6th day, Thursday: Five persons were still in custody.
Hint: They discussed the UST a lot, spoke impeccable English. They arrange abductions in the city and keep boys in the bush and pay them peanuts. The boys in the bush threatened to turn any lady to sex slave if her people did not pay up quickly. “We will give you belle and you will born it here, we do not mind”, one said.
In all of this, the police was not involved.
The honourable kidnapper:
After the haggling and threatening, the family paid N1million for this particular lady. Yet, she was not released. Instead, the boys demanded for another N500,000. They threatened to kill her.
The lady handling the transactions, the family’s first daughter with three children, now went hysterical, telling the guy calling her that her mum had just died. He asked why, she said because of the kidnap of her last daughter; and that the old woman had high blood pressure (BP), and that her husband is blind. Oh, the kidnapper shrieked; so, we have killed someone, we have killed her mum. Do I tell her? She said no, she is last born, she will die if she is told. Oh, he was sorrowful.
He now said, look, just send me N10k, I will free her. I tell you with honour, I will free her. Do not call this number again. It belongs to a victim. When she pleaded with him and called him sir, he said, oh no, don’t call me sir. I am a small boy oh. It’s condition that pushed us into this. Please pray for me. I will surely help you. And he did.
She paid and waited, and waited, no sign. She tried the number but it was dump. Then, Thursday, her phone rang and it was her sister. She had been freed.
Now, is this an honourable kidnapper or a last ditch effort to extort more money? It’s your guess; and your life.
John Otubor, Owerri
