A rescued National Youth Service Corps member, David Ayodele, has shared details of how he and other victims were taken into a forest in Kogi State and threatened with death.
Ayodele said the kidnappers warned that the victims would remain in captivity for one month before being killed. They were also told not to move without permission.
The corps member said they were travelling from Bayelsa State to Abuja after their relocation from the NYSC orientation camp when their vehicle was intercepted.
According to him, the driver tried to escape when the kidnappers appeared, but they eventually forced everyone out and led them into the bush while firing shots into the air.
“Driver tried to escape, but he said, Who’s the driver? Who’s the driver? And I held the driver, then they opened the door, and they started leading us to the bush while they were shooting, you know, rounds of bullets in the air,” he said.
Ayodele said the victims were beaten and kicked as they were taken deeper into the forest.
“Then we made our way to the bush with flogging and kicking and shouting and stuff,” he said.
He recalled that the kidnappers later told them they would be killed after one month.
“We reached one kind of bushy area; they asked us to sit down, they asked us who would drink water, that we would be here for one month, so they would kill all of us,” he recounted.
He said fear kept everyone from moving.
“They warned us that if anybody moved without permission that they will shoot the person, so none of us really attempted to move because of fear and stuff,” he said.
The victims were later rescued by the Nigerian Army.
“So we moved a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot and then thank God the Nigerian Army came to meet us,” he said.
Ayodele praised the military, police, Department of State Services and local hunters for their roles in the rescue.
“I did my orientation camp in Bayelsa camp,” he said.
He said he joined an organised vehicle heading to Abuja after his relocation.
“So, on our way from Bayelsa, because we did relocation back to Abuja, so we were going to Abuja from Bayelsa camp. There were organised vehicles going to different states, so luckily we saw an Abuja vehicle,” he said.
Ayodele was among 15 NYSC members and six other Nigerians rescued from a kidnappers’ den in Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State.
