By Ahmed Ajikobi
Tragedy occurred recently, when two members of Isokan Butchers Association of Nigeria, Kwara State branch, Sulaiman Muhammed Jamiu and Alfa Musa Baraje were kidnapped along Kontagora road in Niger State.
The unfortunate incident occurred on the Saborijia-Sefurani road while the victims alongside seven others were returning from a journey to Kontagora where they had gone to purchase cows for their business.
It was gathered that the kidnappers laid ambush for their truck but captured only two of the occupants as others were lucky to have escaped.
Narrating their experience the victims described the incident as traumatic.
According to Jamiu, “On that fateful day, I noticed that, the truck stopped abruptly and we started hearing gunshots and I thought we were being attacked by armed robbers.
I was at the back of the truck so I jumped off and ran into the bush. Some of the kidnappers pursued me and shot in my direction. In the process, I was hit by a bullet in my leg and I fell down.
“One of the kidnappers hit me with cutlass just as I was shouting for help. They tied me and took me somewhere further in the bush.”
He said the seven days he spent in the kidnappers’ den were gruesome as they were maltreated by their abductors throughout their stay with them.
In his account, Baraje said, “I was on the front seat in the truck and saw flash of light. I thought they were armed robbers. So, I asked the driver to speed up to avoid being robbed. But others advised him to stop the vehicle so as not to incur wrath of our assailants.
“The suspects were fully armed with sophisticated ammunition. I jumped down from the truck and ran into bush. The kidnappers gave me a hot chase and later caught up with me. I was beaten blue and black and they collected my phone and the money on me.
“They took us to their hideout where they dealt with us mercilessly. However, we thank God that we came back home safely. We thank everyone that contributed in one way or the other to facilitate our release,” he added.
Speaking to this medium, the Chairman of the Isokan Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Solihu Ade20 described the incident as unfortunate, which sent shivers down spine of members of the association.
Also speaking, the General Secretary of the Association, Alhaji Oba Olegede who narrated how the release of the kidnapped members were facilitated said,
“The members went to buy cows at Kawo market and were kidnapped while returning home at about 1am. We got to know about the incident from others who escaped being kidnapped.
“The kidnappers later used the mobile phone numbers of their victims to contact us to demand for N15m ransom and threatened to kill them if we did not pay up within 24hrs.
“We had to rally round for support and efforts to reach government functionaries and politicians proved abortive. We had to beg and members were levied. Some well meaning individuals in the town also contributed money. We also borrowed money.
“We were able to raise N2million and pleaded profusely with the kidnappers who later yielded to our plea and agreed to collect that amount from us as ransom.”
He added that aside the N2million ransom the kidnappers collected N20,000 worth of airtime, packs of coke, malt and milk.
He, however, called on government to tackle the insecurity in Nigeria, while lamenting increasing rate of kidnapping across the country.
