The abducted corps members from Ondo State who were released by the kidnappers on Monday said the family of each of the victims paid a sum of N1m before they were set free.
The five victims who include four corps members and one artisan were kidnapped by the bandits at about 11 pm last Thursday at Omi Alafa Village in Ifon, Ose LGA and dragged into a nearby forest.
The corps members were said to be going back home after the three-week National Youth Service Corps Orientation camp in Enugu and Abia states. It was gathered that the driver and one passenger sitting in front of the vehicle were shot dead by the bandits.
Narrating their ordeal to our correspondent on Tuesday, one of the corps members, Patience Andrew, said the bandits contacted their families and demanded the sum of N30m each for ransom but after much negotiation, they agreed to collect N1m each.
She described the four-day experience in the den of the bandits as horrible and hellish, saying they were beaten black and blue by the kidnappers while they were given garri and dirty water to drink once a day.
Andrew said, “We boarded a bus from Abia State to Onitsha, Anambra State, but our driver was not fast enough. One of the park drivers took us to where we boarded another bus going to Akure. We arrived around 2 pm but the driver did not take off immediately, so we left Onitsha Park around 5 pm with nine passengers in a Sienna bus. We got to Ondo State around 10 pm which was where the incident happened. The bandits flashed a torchlight on the driver and he said, ‘Oga, I no see you.’
“They immediately fired at him twice the moment he made that statement. He and the woman sitting next to him were immediately killed. One guy too was stabbed. Two other people died but we don’t know about the guy who was stabbed because he ran away. Then, they brought us out of the vehicle and took us inside the bush. We trekked from past 10 pm till around 7 am the following day in the bush. The kidnappers were five in number and their age range should be around 25 years. They were speaking Hausa/Fulani language and they had one interpreter.
“They tortured us and we were only given garri and water once a day. At first, they asked for N30m per person but as the negotiation was going, they brought it down to N3m. So, they now asked us to bring N1m each. We slept inside the bush throughout the day, we heard the bark of a dog and the sound of a cow in the bush and we also passed through farmland when we were coming out, and we didn’t meet anybody on the road then our brothers came with the N1m.
According to her, some of the items demanded by the bandits and were taken to them included three packs of Hollandia yoghurt, two loaves of bread, one carton of Peak milk, one pack of malt, bottles of Fearless drink, one pack of cigarette and 10 packs of cooked rice and chicken and N1m each, totalling N5m.
The Ondo State Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Funmilayo Odunlami, in a statement, said the victims were abandoned before the police picked them up and took them to the Police Medical Services Owo briefly before reuniting them with their families.
She said, “The command this day, July 22, has found victims of the Ose/Ifon area kidnap which occurred July 18, 2024.
The victims were abandoned by their assailants after the police mounted pressure on them.
“Policemen drawn from the tactical squad led by the Area Commander of Owo, ACP Olufemi Awoyale’s continuous combing of the bush with sustained technical support frustrated the assailants and they were forced to abandon the victims at the Oyinbo/ Sanusi Camp.”
