As the spate of kidnapping and violent crimes continue to rise in Imo state, a United Kingdom-based Nigerian medical doctor, Ibe Nathans, who was abducted last week has escaped from his kidnappers.
Nathans returned to Nigeria a fortnight ago to continue his periodic free medical treatment for the people of Ngor Okpala local government area and other parts of the state.
He was reportedly abducted last week by unknown gunmen along Umuocham/Uvuru Ntu road within the local government while on his way back to Owerri, the state capital.
The medical doctor who hails from Umuocham Ntu in the LGA, it was learnt, ran into the two two-man gang barely an hour after he left home for the city after attending to sick persons in the neighbourhood.
Narrating his ordeal to family members and sympathisers after his escape, Nathans recalled that he met two young men along the road who blocked part of the pathway feigning to be repairing their motorbike.
According to him, the hoodlums taking advantage of his sudden halt charged at him with guns moving towards his car before he took a sharp reverse to escape the attack.
He was given a hot chase by the duo who eventually caught up with him after he abandoned the car and headed for the bush.
The kidnapper, he said, tied his hands, legs blindfolded him, laid him down on the floor of the car and sat on his head before whisking him away in the Cherokee Jeep parked by him to a nearby compound in the area where a woman allegedly prayed for them before they finally departed to their hideout.
While carrying their victim away to their hide out, the doctor further disclosed that they told him all they needed from him was money to cushion the harsh effects of the biting national economy worsened by high unemployment rate.
Speaking to THISDAY, a close relation of the abducted medical doctor said the kidnappers demanded a N1 billion ransom for the release of their victim and informed them that they abandoned his Jeep along Mbaise/Okpala road, when they were contacted on phone through their victim’s GSM line.
Continuing, the victim, who described the experience as a nightmare, said the gang took him far into a forest where he was dumped in the custody of one of the bandits while the other left to drop the Jeep along the road.

Thanks to OBJ, this is what Nigeria has turned into.