- “Two people walked up to me and slapped me, and one other who was holding a gun hit me with it at my back”
The father of the six girls who were abducted in the Bwari area of the Federal Capital Territory, Mansur Al-Kadriyar, has narrated their unpalatable experience and the harsh treatment they were subjected to by their captors.
Recall that Al-Kadriyar alongside his daughters were abducted by gunmen at their residence in Zuma 1, Bwari area of Abuja on January 2.
The gunmen later released their father, asking him to go get N60m as ransom for the release of her daughters before Friday, January 12.
However, the gunmen reportedly killed the eldest of the six sisters because of his inability to raise the ransom and then dumped her body somewhere for her parents to bury.
Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Monday, Al-Kadriyar said he and his children trekked for eight hours inside the bush.
“I was at their camp when all these ransom issues were coming up. That night when we went through the bush, it took about eight hours and 30 minutes of working together with my children, I was not wearing any slippers, I was wearing a short and a sports shirt.”
He continued, “While walking into the bush, there was one among them who was friendly with us. I told him ‘Aboki, what do you want? Don’t treat me like this.’ He was trying to speak Yoruba, he said, ‘Money, you have money?’
“When they got to a hill, fetched some firewood and prepared their food there that night. At that time, they asked me to kneel down, and one of them came to me and asked ‘Do you have million?’ I said, ‘Where do you expect me to get that?’
“Two people walked up to me and slapped me, and one other who was holding a gun hit me with it at my back.
“When they were done eating, they asked us to relax for about 30 minutes and the second lap of the journey took us about three hours again.”
He continued, “We got to a bush where they asked us to sleep for about 30 minutes. My children, those with wrappers covered me with their wrappers.
“After 30 to 40 minutes, they told us to get up and we started the final lap. There is a big stream and a mountain to cross over to where their leader was.
“The guy that I picked as a friend was telling me, ‘Bros, cooperate with oga, oga will release you so that you will go and look for the money.’ I told him I don’t have money and I’m a civil servant.
“I just moved into that house not up to two months. Before we moved in, I explained to my children that the sitting room was not furnished and that we would need to just manage. We have been staying in a rented apartment for a long time.
“He asked me to go and sit down and relax. After a few minutes, the leader asked me to come, I knelt down before him and he said, ‘Are you a soldier?’ I said, ‘No, I am just a civil servant, the house you see me occupying is for my brother and it is not yet completed.’
“He said okay. One of them came from the back and hit me in the back. They said how much can I raise. I told them I can try to raise N2 million. They said I have not yet negotiated.
“They asked me to count my children and think about their number, My children started saying, ‘Daddy, please don’t allow them to kill us.’
“They (bandits) started talking about N5 million to N10 million, I said where will I get N10 million from?.”
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