A rescued National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, David Ayodele, has recounted how kidnappers allegedly threatened to keep him and other abductees in a Kogi forest for one month and kill them.
Mr Ayodele gave the account in a video obtained by PREMIUM TIMES after security forces rescued him and 20 others from a kidnappers’ den in Ofu Local Government Area of the state.
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He said the kidnappers intercepted their vehicle while they were travelling from Bayelsa State to Abuja after completing their NYSC orientation programme.
According to him, the driver attempted to escape when the attackers emerged, but the kidnappers forced the passengers out of the vehicle and marched them into the forest while shooting into the air.
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“Driver tried to escape, but he said, ‘Who’s the driver? Who’s the driver?’ And I held the driver, then they opened the door, and they started leading us to the bush while they were shooting, you know, rounds of bullets in the air,” Mr Ayodele said.
He said the victims were beaten as they were taken into the forest.
“Then we made our way to the bush with flogging and kicking and shouting and stuff,” he said.
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Mr Ayodele said the kidnappers later ordered them to sit down and threatened to kill them after keeping them in captivity for a month.
“We reached one kind of bushy area; they asked us to sit down, they asked us who would drink water, that we would be here for one month, so they would kill all of us,” he recounted.
He said the kidnappers also warned the victims against moving without permission.
“They warned us that if anybody moved without permission that they will shoot the person, so none of us really attempted to move because of fear and stuff,” he said.
The corps member said they were moved through the forest for a long distance before troops eventually rescued them.
“So we moved a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot and then thank God the Nigerian Army came to meet us,” he said.
Mr Ayodele commended the security agencies involved in the rescue, including the military, the police, the State Security Services, and local hunters.
How the abduction happened
Mr Ayodele said he had completed his orientation at the NYSC camp in Bayelsa State and was travelling to Abuja after being relocated.
“I did my orientation camp in Bayelsa camp,” he said.
He said corps members were travelling in organised vehicles to different states when he joined a vehicle heading to Abuja.
“So, on our way from Bayelsa, because we did relocation back to Abuja, so we were going to Abuja from Bayelsa camp. There were organised vehicles going to different states, so luckily we saw an Abuja vehicle,” he said.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported on 28 August that 15 NYSC members were abducted while returning from the orientation camp in Bayelsa State.
A relative of one of the victims told the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) that the corps members were travelling along the Ofu/Itobe-Onicha-Igo axis in Ofu LGA when they were attacked.
The Kogi Police Command subsequently confirmed the incident, saying on 28 August that 11 victims had been rescued while a search operation continued for those still missing.
The police said the attackers emerged from the bush around Ogene Zaria, near the Ogene Zaria/Onicha-Igo Junction, at about 4:40 p.m. on 26 August.
The command said two abandoned vehicles, including a Peace Mass Transit bus and a yellow 18-seater bus, were recovered from the scene.
21 abductees rescued
On Monday, President Bola Tinubu announced that all 15 NYSC members and six other people abducted in Kogi had been rescued.
In a statement personally signed by him, Mr Tinubu said a combined team of the military, police, SSS and local vigilantes rescued the 21 victims from a kidnappers’ den in the forests of Ofu LGA.
“The well-coordinated Search and Rescue (SAR) operation carried out by a combined team of personnel of the military, the Nigerian Police Force, the Department of State Services, and local vigilantes safely rescued all twenty-one abductees, made up of eight males and thirteen females, from the den of kidnappers in the forests of Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State this afternoon,” he said.
The President said the victims were receiving medical attention before being reunited with their families.
He also said security forces were still pursuing the kidnappers.
The latest rescue follows several kidnapping incidents and security operations in Kogi in recent weeks.
On 9 August, 16 people were abducted along the Ojuwo-Ajengo-Memarebo and Ojiwo-Itobe roads in Ofu LGA.
The Nigerian Army later said all the victims were rescued after troops and other security personnel engaged the kidnappers in a gun battle near Adumu in Dekina LGA.
On 16 July, the Kogi Government announced the rescue of a school principal, a NECO official and two students who were abducted during an attack on an examination centre in Olowa, Dekina LGA.
The repeated attacks have raised concerns over the use of Kogi’s highways and forest corridors by criminal groups to abduct travellers and evade security forces.
The latest account by Mr Ayodele provides a first-hand description of the ordeal suffered by some of the victims before their rescue.
Photo: David Ayodele and other rescued NYSC members in Kogi State.
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