Victims recount how kidnappers flogged them for 12 days

– They were excited after receiving a call from a team
in Rivers state for a contract they were to be awarded
– They left Delta state on the instruction of their boss
to get the contract, but ended up in the hands of their
abductors
Three kidnap victims, Mr Okelezo Wilfred, who is the
general manager of Jofad Global Services, a
construction firm in Warri, Delta state, as well as his
colleagues, Roland Ukojevo and Israel Isawoele, took
out time to recount their experiences in the hands of
their abductors recently.
According to The Punch, the victims said they were
daily given 10 strokes of the cane for the 12 days they
spent in the hands of their abductors. After every
beating, they were fed with plantain and beans.

    File photo of some suspected kidnappers

Recalling how the incident happened, Wilfred said said

they became victims because of their desperation for a

contract.

Wilfred, who is now treating injuries sustained in the

buttocks as a result of the daily flogging, further said

the kidnappers later demanded for N150 million as

ransom from their boss.

He said: “I felt an excruciating pain when they

(kidnappers) flogged me. Every day, they flogged us 10

times. They did not flog Mr. Roland because of his age.

Now, I have wounds in my buttocks.

“We got a little relief when they asked Mr. Ukojevo to do

the flogging because his (strokes of cane) was not as

painful as when the kidnappers flogged us by

themselves.”

In his own narration, Ukojevo, with swollen legs, said

one of the kidnappers, claiming to be in charge of the

contract to them, took the victims somewhere in Ogba/

Egbema/Ndoni local government area of Rivers state.

“Somebody told us there was a job and that we should

come and look at it. We came in from Delta to Ahoada

and when we met the man, he said he would take us to

his boss somewhere in Ahoada.

“He later took us to somewhere in Omoku, Ogba/

Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, where we were

hijacked.

“We were taken to three different locations in the bush.

They took us to a hut where we were blindfolded. We

were there for six hours.

“They later took us away from that hut to another place

where we spent another six hours and later, they took

us across a river and we trekked for about two hours,”

he said.

They were rescued by men of the Nigerian Security and

Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the victims said they

had learnt their lessons.

“They are contractors from Warri, in Delta state.

Someone called them from Rivers state that they had a

contract for them in Rivers and so, the manager, site

engineer and two others were mandated by their

company to come down to Rivers state to see and

negotiate how the job would be done.

“Unfortunately, they did not know that it was a set-up

by the kidnappers. There was no contract; it was just a

scam to get them out of Delta state and get them

kidnapped,” the NSCDC confirmed.

Kidnapping for ransom has become a major crime in

many parts of Nigeria. In Lagos state , the House of

Assembly is preparing a bill that would ensure stricter

punishments for kidnappers.