pastor

Founder of Southern Atlantic Polytechinic and Senior Pastor of Royal House of Faith Ministries, a Pentecostal ministry in Lekki, Lagos, Pastor Bassey James, is one person that would mark the 2018 Yuletide with great thanksgiving.

Pastor James, who is also the President of Southern Youths Development Forum, passed through an ordeal in the hands of kidnappers, who abducted him on November 25 while working at the site of the polytechnic, which is getting ready to open its doors to commence academic activities. When he spoke with Sunday Sun in an exclusive interview, he recounted the harrowing experience and stated that it was so terrible that he would not wish his enemy to go through it. Rather, he is most grateful to God whose divine intervention kept the kidnappers from either harming or killing him. He was released from their custody seven days.
We heard that you were abducted. When and how did it happen?

I was kidnapped on the November 25, at the site of Southern Atlantic Polytechnic, on Airport Road in the Akpabiosm area on the outskirts of Uyo, Akwa Ibom. On that day, we were working at the site in preparation for the take –off of the institution. It happened between 6.30 and 7.00pm of that day, when we were about closing for the day.
Please try to recount what you can recall about how it happened.

The workers were preparing to leave the site when I saw some men, strange faces who came in. I did not know them, they mixed up with the workers. When the men identified me and came to where I was, they shot into the air to scare off the workers. I counted about eight to nine of the men who came to abduct me and they were well armed with shotguns. There was a stampede. Then they started looking for the key of a vehicle. When they found it, they forced me into it and drove off. I was blindfolded and taken to the waterside in Uyo. I think that we drove about 40 minutes off the road. When we were moving in the vehicle, I sensed that some motorcyclists were escorting the car. Initially, I thought the motorcyclists were chasing the kidnappers and I was happy but then I realized that they were part of the kidnapping team when I started hearing gunshots fired by the motorcyclists riding close to the vehicle. I believe that they were firing to prevent possible pursuers from attempting to rescue me at that time and also to clear the way for their escape. At the waterside, they abandoned the vehicle and put in an engine boat and sped off on the water.
While you were moving to their hideout in the boat, did they say anything to you at all?

When we got on the way, they told me that they were militants and kidnappers. They said I should cooperate with them or they would kill me and dump my body into the ocean. I started pleading with them, not to harm me. I told them that I am an indigene like them (they spoke English and Ibibio language). I said that all of us were suffering together. One thing I learnt as we were going was that they knew me and talked about the things I had been doing. From the discussion going on among them, I knew that we moved on the water for almost four hours. They took me to Oron. All through that time, I was still blindfolded. They never made any attempt to remove the blindfold. Seeing their face carried the risk of being killed. In fact, I told them to make it tighter, to avoid it falling off accidentally.
So what happened after you had been on the water for so long?

After spending so much time moving on the water, we got to the first camp. I was taken out of the speedboat and taken into the forest. The place was like a mangrove swamp. When they realized that the police and the other security services were searching for me, they started.....read more at......http://naijachurchnews.com/ordeal-kidnappers-den-pastor-bassey-james/