Tayo Olofinbinu, one of the burial guests abducted along the Benin-Ifon highway, while returning from Edo State, has narrated how a man was shot dead while trying trying to escape with her wife from captivity.
WITHIN NGERIA recalls that gunmen kidnapped 32 people returning from a funeral service.
Olofinbinu told newsmen that their abductors brandished AK-47, and marched all the occupants of the vehicle into the forest.
The legal practitioner said, “We travelled in a convoy with police escort while going, but we couldn’t wait for the convoy on our return because we wanted to avoid travelling at night, only for us to run into the kidnappers who had laid siege on the road.”
“Two people escaped from the kidnappers while nine others including a couple were marched into the bush after they were seriously beaten”.
The victim, who is still recuperating after being discharged from hospital, said: “The couple tried to escape from the kidnapper’s camp but were unlucky as the husband was shot by the kidnappers.
“Another victim who the kidnappers said was not cooperating with them was inflicted with deep machete cut on the head. I am not sure he will survive the injury, as he was nearly dead by the time he was released.
“We were only allowed to speak with our relatives after three days in captivity. And we were only fed with bread and soft drinks after four days in the thick forest.
“I was fortunate not to have been touched throughout my time in captivity. But they (kidnappers) treated most of us badly.
“They hit some of us repeatedly with their machetes and even inflicted a deep cut on the head of one of us.
“The man was already pale by the time he was released on the fourth day. I doubt if he would survive the injury.
“There was another man who tried to escape with his wife one night, thinking that the kidnappers had slept. But the wife’s movement must have alerted them (kidnappers). They shot the man died instantly.”
He, however, said he was released unhurt on the fifth day after payment of ransom, saying he also paid the ransom of some of his fellow abductees.
Recall that their abductors demanded N90m ransom before the 11 persons were to be released.