PUNCH
On Thursday, July 18, 2024, as travellers traversed a major road along Omi Alafa Village in Ifon, Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State, armed men in a commando-like style jumped out from the thickets, shooting sporadically at vehicles.
Confused and stricken by fear, several inter-state bus drivers frantically stopped at safe distances.
However, a particular bus that had its two front tyres riddled with bullets swayed dangerously at high speed.
As it stopped abruptly a few inches from where a barricade had been mounted, angry, gun-wielding men swooped on the passengers.
Based on reports, some of the travellers, including four National Youth Service Corps members, one artisan and four others, were marched deep into the forest. The corps members, it was gathered, were returning from the NYSC orientation camps in Enugu and Abia states, respectively, after a three-week stay.
While two travellers escaped unhurt, the driver and the passenger beside him were unlucky, as they were shot, and their bullet-riddled bodies left slouched against the doors.
As news of the kidnap spread, families ran helter-skelter to raise the ransom of N1m for each of the victims as demanded by the abductors.
Four days later, the bandits released five victims following the payment of N5m ransom.
Among those freed was Patience Andrew, who appeared frail and sick from walking barefooted for kilometres and without food for days.
The traumatised young man described the four-day experience in the den of the bandits as horrible and hellish. He said they were viciously beaten with knives and sticks by their abductors and given only garri and dirty water to eat once a day.
Recounting his experience, a visibly shaken Andrew said, “We boarded a bus from Abia State to Onitsha, but our driver was not driving fast enough. At Onitsha, one of the drivers took us to where we boarded a vehicle going to Akure.
“Despite boarding the bus by 2pm, we didn’t leave Onitsha until about 5pm. We were nine passengers. It was when we got to Ondo State around 10pm that the incident happened. After forcing us to stop, the armed men flashed torchlights at the driver, and he said, ‘Oga, I no see you.’
“Immediately he said that, they shot him and the woman sitting next to him, and they died on the spot. One man was cut with a cutlass. We don’t know what happened to him because he ran away. Then they brought us out of the vehicle and marched us into the forest. We trekked from past 10pm till around 7am the following day. The kidnappers were five and their age range should be around 25 years. They spoke a mixture of Hausa and Fulani languages and had an interpreter.
“We were tortured and only given garri and water once a day. At first, they demanded N30m for each person, but as the negotiation went on, they brought it down to N3m and later, N1m. We slept inside the bush throughout the day and moved only at night. At some point, we heard dogs barking and the sound of cattle in the bush; but we kept moving. We passed through farmlands but didn’t see anybody.”
