Joseph Ebi Kanjo, Benin
A middle-aged woman who identified herself as Emmanuella Anyanwu, has narrated her ordeal in the hands of her abductors and how she miraculously escaped from the kidnappers’ den along the Benin-Lagos Expressway.
Anyanwu was amongst those kidnapped on Saturday at the scene where Felix Sowore’s was shot dead.
Speaking to newsmen on Monday in Benin, Anyanwu said they were traveling from Lagos to the East on that particular day when their vehicle broke down which made them to pass the night in the bush inside their vehicle.
She narrated that they passed the night in the bush untill around 6:30am to 7:00am when some men came out from the bush and started shooting sporadically, and that after they surrendered to the shooting, they were all abducted and taken to the bush where they treked for over two hours before getting to the kidnappers’den.
According to her, the men among them were mercilessly beaten by the kidnappers while female like her was spared from such beating.
“At about 6.30am to 7:00am, some men came out from the bush and started shooting at us, and we all surrendered. They took our belongings including our phones and matched us into the bush. It took us almost two hours to get to their camp. They blind folded us.
“So, they started calling us one after the other, and I was the last person they called. They asked me where I was coming from and where I was going. I told them that I was coming from Lagos and going to Imo State.
“They asked if I know them, I said no. They asked if I know the police and army, I told them I know those ones. They told me they were kidnappers, and said they abducted me because of ransom. They said if I don’t have money they will take my life.
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“I asked them how much they wanted. But one of them was furious I was asking them questions. I told them I needed to know the ransom. They asked if I had N10m and I told them there was no way to get that kind of money. I told them I will give them N500,000 from money gathered from my village. One of them said I was a fool and they told me to sit down,” she narrated.
Giving vivid picture of how she escaped from her abductors, Anyanwu said a particular victim they brought, from whom they collected something that distracted them made her to narrowly escaped during their distraction.
She narrated, “Then it started raining heavily, and they went away and brought one man again. So, they took something from that man and their attention was on it.
“So, I removed my blind fold and decided to escape, but I decided to shift the plan till midnight, but my spirit told me to escape because I would not have the opportunity to do so in the night, because the abductors don’t sleep in the night. I crept and that was how I escaped.”
On how she find her route to Benin City, the escaped victim said, “I saw a mast far away and I started treking toward it. After one hour or more I got to a road and saw an elderly man on motorcycle and I asked him to take me to the police station, which he did. We were two ladies and three men.”