PUNCH
A 31-year-old farmer based in Osun State, Samuel Oladotun who was recently abducted alongside his brother, by some gunmen near his farm in Ileogbo town, spoke about their harrowing experience inside the kidnappers’ den. The graduate of Animal Science, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, in this interview with BOLA BAMIGBOLA, narrates the pains, losses, the their travails. Excerpts:
What was your experience like in the den of your abductors?
It was not easy at all surviving in that place, but by the grace of God, we survived it all. We were abducted on Wednesday, January 11 and made to trek for about 45 minutes into the bush before we stopped briefly to rest. After resting for some minutes, we started our long trek again for about 2-3 hours before we again got to a place where we rested. It was after the third tranche of trek, that we finally got to the kidnappers’ camp. There, we were kept with no water and food.
We learnt another person was abducted along with you. Who was the person?
He is my younger brother, Tobi. When we were kidnapped, he was even fasting. When it got to a stage were we could no longer bear it, we asked our abductors, if we could get some water, but one of them viciously hit us with sticks for asking for water. But good enough, one of them understands fairly good English language. He was the one who took pity upon us and gave us some water to drink.
How were you abducted?
On the day we were kidnapped, I had concluded all the task I set out to do on the farm. As I was heading out of the area in my vehicle, I heard a loud bang, ostensibly from a gunshot. It roared from the back of my vehicle. Initially i thought it was from a hunter. I immediately parked to check what the problem was and just as I came down, three men emerged from the bush from the back and started shooting sporadically into the air. Before I realised what was happening, another set showed up in front of the vehicle. That was how were we were captured.
