The police in Lagos State are investigating a viral video of a yet-to-be-identified man narrating his ordeal in the hands of suspected kidnappers in the Lekki area of the state.
The police spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, told PREMIUM TIMES on Friday that the man had not reported the incident at any police division yet.
“I can’t give details of the investigation, but the investigation has commenced,” he said.
In a series of tweets on Thursday, Mr Hundeyin had said that the police were aware of the viral video.
Viral video
In the viral video posted on Twitter, by Gistreel, the man who said he is a skate coach, said that he boarded a public transport to Iyana-Oworo around 7 p.m. because he was too tired after the day’s work to drive, only to discover that he was in the hands of suspected kidnappers.
“I got into a bus heading to Iyana-Oworo and noticed this weird smell,” he recounted.
“Anybody who has been in a military training or setting would know about gasses that knock people off. I knew that was what it was, so I spat in my handkerchief and used it to cover my nose.
“In about five to 10 minutes, every other passenger in the bus had fallen asleep apart from the members of the team who had all brought out nose masks to cover their noses.”
He said that he found out that he was in trouble when the bus driver asked why he was not asleep like the other passengers.
“We started exchanging words. I was not rude or anything but begging them that they should have my phone, a Samsung Galaxy S22 which costs N1.3million and could still be sold for N800,000.
“I told them, this is my ATM, you can withdraw it. I have a very big chain that is worth a million and I told them, this chain, you can take it.”
He said that while he was pleading to be allowed to alight, the kidnappers insisted that they would only stop when they got to where he would be killed and dismembered.
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Narrating further, the man whose face was swollen and had a bleeding nose, said that the kidnappers veered off the road, parked and brought him out.
“They started using cutlass, knives and different weapons on me. I am an African man and I am fortified,” he said.
“When they saw that the knives, dagger and cutlasses were not entering, about three of them held my neck, another two held my hands, you can see laceration in my neck, they were trying to slash my neck and slaughter me but it wasn’t penetrating.”
According to him, when the attempt to slaughter him failed, the gang’s leader, whom he said appeared to be from the northern part, ordered three men in army uniforms to use their boots to hit his head as he was held to the ground.
In the video, the victim could be seen coughing out blood.
“After a while, I just realized that I was getting dizzy and once that happens these people will take me and do what they want,” he continued.
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“So, I reached out for my bag which was on the floor and nobody noticed, I reached for a knife inside the bag and started waving it in different directions.
“In the process, it cut one of them in the tummy, his tummy got busted, one in the neck and another in the eye. They started bleeding profusely.
“Their leader told them that they had gotten the rest who were asleep and they should deliver them and leave me, that at the end of the day I would die from all they had done to me.”
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