On Wednesday April 17, four men left the Ilogbo area of Ogun State to attend a burial in the Saki area of Oyo State, but only two of them returned home alive following their abduction by a deadly gang of herdsmen on the highway. In this interview with KUNLE AKINRINADE, one of the victims, Nurudeen Olaitan Salami, who was later freed by the kidnappers, shares the heartrending encounter and narrow escape from death in the den of the kidnappers.

You were abducted by gunmen on April 17 alongside three others while returning from a burial. How did it happen?

It was an all-night final burial party of the mother of the chairman of Ilupeju Igbusi Ilogbo Community Development Association. As landlords and members of the community, I together with three others, namely Omogbolahan Olakunle, Rafiu Oriade Jolaiya and Ernest left work on that day to honour our chairman with our presence at the party.

After the party, we stayed back for a few hours on Thursday, April 18 to relax before boarding a minibus en route Lagos in the afternoon. It was a nine-passenger bus, and before it took off from the motorpark at Saki, some of our acquaintances who also came from Lagos gave us two loaves of Bokku bread and four soft drinks.

When our bus finally left the park around 3.30 pm, our expectation was a peaceful and exciting return to our base in Ogun State while savoured the bread and soft drinks our hosts gave to us. But about an hour later, the bus we boarded screeched to a halt at a checkpoint mounted by five AK-47 clutching herdsmen around the Maya axis of Lanlate-Eruwa Road.

Like a scene from a movie, the bandits dragged all the passengers out of the bus and led us into the forest, while they left two teenage Fulani passengers and the driver of the bus to continue the trip.

What then happened in the forest?
The first thing they did to us was to beat us and collect our bread and soft drinks, which they ate and drank in our presence. From there, we became the recipient of brutality and assault as they hit us constantly with sticks, and the flat ends of cutlass, and also slapped us repeatedly. They had on them a phone that looked like a satellite phone which they charged with a solar panel and used it to communicate with their contacts and family members of victims.

They didn’t want to see any iPhone at all. So the iPhones they seized from us, including mine, were all smashed on the ground and destroyed.

Apart from you and others that were seized from the bus, did you meet other victims in the forest?

Yes. Only seven of the nine passengers in our bus were kidnapped while two Fulani passengers and the driver of the bus were allowed to go. But inside the forest, we met no fewer than 11 other victims including a woman and her three young children kidnapped from their residence when the herdsmen could not get her wealthy husband, who was their target.

Among the captives was also a commercial motorcyclist otherwise called ‘okada rider’, who was abducted in Saki. He later escaped from the forest when he asked to be led to a stream to fetch water but they ran into some soldiers who opened fire and killed one of the herdsmen who led him to the stream.


How were you and other victims moved from one point to another inside the forest without running into people living in villages around the forest area?

They led us through thick forests and made detours to avoid running into villagers nearby. They were five in number but one of them was shot dead by soldiers attached to Operation Burst during an encounter the day after they led us into the forest while another member of the gang suffered a gunshot wound on his leg.
What happened was that they sent one of them to lead a victim, an okada rider, to fetch water from a stream when the soldiers who were on routine operation killed one of the herdsmen and wounded another while the victim escaped.

On the same day, at about 8 pm, they went in search of the one that suffered a gunshot wound on his leg, and that gave one of my kidnapped friends, Ernest, an opportunity to flee. That was how he escaped and contacted the police.

Ernest told us that he ran as fast as he could and that he slept in a thick forest overnight, contacted the nearby police station very early in the morning and was taken into custody.

How did you regain your freedom?

It was a narrow escape from death brought about by almighty God, who put it in the heart of the wicked herdsmen to set me free without any ransom paid. At about 7 pm on a Sunday, the leader of the gang told us that he would release us because he was expecting payment of ransom from a family whose three members were kidnapped. He however threatened to kill us if the operatives of Amotekun Corps attacked them in the forest.
Then suddenly, we heard sounds of gunshots from a distance. The shots were fired by a combined team of policemen and soldiers and the bandits returned fire too to scare the law enforcement team.

After the gunshots ceased, the leader of the gang returned to where we were kept in the forest and shot eight of their captives dead, including a 13-year-old boy. My friends, Omogbolahan Olakunle and Oriade Jolaiya, were also among the eight captives killed by the leader of the herdsmen.

Two members of a family abducted in their residence and the driver of a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) previously abducted were set free.

One of the two siblings kidnapped was a seven-year-old boy. His 21-year-old sister and their mother were abducted from their residence. Their mother died from exhaustion in the forest while we were being led around by the bandits. They were hitting us with sticks and blows.

I was tasked with carrying the wounded member of the gang on my back. To tell you how heartless the kidnappers are, each time I got tired, he would hit me with blows on my head from the back despite the excruciating pain he suffered from his gunshot wounds. We were beaten mercilessly as we trekked in the forest.

We were released around 1.30 am on Sunday, April 21. It happened that an older brother of the two siblings abducted brought the ransom on a motorcycle for the release of his siblings and their mother who he did not know had died in the forest. The woman was left with no strength to carry on and she started seeing blood and died shortly after.

Her older son who came with the ransom had been told by the kidnappers to put his two pointer lights on when coming. They also asked him to buy rice and meat with table water when coming to drop the ransom. So, when he arrived, the kidnappers quickly collected the ransom from him and collected the motorbike which they used to escape from the scene. It was the man that took us to his family residence from where we were taken by police to their station. We walked amid downpours from the forest to the home of the kidnapped siblings where sympathizers were waiting for us.

The kidnappers cooked rice in pots and ate before us while many victims drank their urine. One of us, Fawaz, was killed by the kidnappers. Another victim called Panko, who drank his urine, died after much exhaustion.

Jakumo:
This is by far one of the most viscerally terrifying kidnapping accounts that I have ever read in recent times. For typical law-abiding citizens who have never contemplated harming another human being, it is impossible to visualize the depth of heartless, sadistic evil that resides in the hearts of career criminals who injure, maim, and kill their victims as a matter of daily routine. This first-hand account of a kidnap ordeal provides a jarring insight that lays bare in stark relief the abject paralyzing horror movie that is Nigeria in 2024.

Surveillance drones are required for deployment by police formations all over the Nigerian federation. With a round-trip mission range of well over ten miles, a used $500 DJI Mavic 2 Pro fitted with a new $200 extra-range battery sold online by Ali Express, could be issued to EVERY police station in the federation, after adequate laptop-based simulator training has been given to the drone operators. With this $700 security investment in all or some of Nigeria's police stations, and with flight batteries charged at a centrally located solar-powered drone battery charging station in each town, the tide can very quickly be turned against the kidnap gangs now proliferating with alarming speed all over the Nigerian federation.

Odin13:
Yoruba land is gone tey tey..

Anyways that’s not their problem .. even if fulani wan kidnap a community and install emir.. they’re welcome

Yoruba business online and offline is all about igbos, ipob, Peter Obi , and how to deport and teach igbos lesson unlimited

Nice one from them..

Curious345:



https://thenationonlineng.net/i-watched-in-horror-as-our-abductors-shot-eight-captives-dead-inside-oyo-forest-kidnapping-victim

Jakumo:
This is by far one of the most viscerally terrifying kidnapping accounts that I have ever read in recent times. For typical law-abiding citizens who have never contemplated harming another human being, it is impossible to visualize the depth of heartless, sadistic evil that resides in the hearts of career criminals who injure, maim, and kill their victims as a matter of daily routine. This first-hand account of a kidnap ordeal provides a jarring insight that lays bare in stark relief the abject paralyzing horror movie that is Nigeria in 2024.

Surveillance drones are required for deployment by police formations all over the Nigerian federation. With a round-trip mission range of well over ten miles, a used $500 DJI Mavic 2 Pro fitted with a new $200 extra-range battery sold online by Ali Express, could be issued to EVERY police station in the federation, after adequate laptop-based simulator training has been given to the drone operators. With this $700 security investment in all or some of Nigeria's police stations, and with flight batteries charged at a centrally located solar-powered drone battery charging station in each town, the tide can very quickly be turned against the kidnap gangs now proliferating with alarming speed all over the Nigerian federation.

ElevationD:


Unfortunately, the same law officers will sabotage it.
We suffer a very big shame with some law officers in this country. One wonders how in this age of advanced technology, this country battles with these rag tag criminals and vipers on our highways. To think that the police do not even have trackers is a monumental disgrace.

How then with all the hefty budgets can things ge appropriately carried out? Even when the equipments are provided, we hear of security officers who share surveillance and intelligence secrets with bandits and kidnappers. The honest ones find out at the point that all their efforts wasted.

From all the security budgets of governors, how is it so difficult to purchase drones and trackers? What’s the point purchasing Hilux’s and bikes, when technology can penetrate much deeper and faster?

It is indeed very sad.

Gadafii:
So okada rider escaped after the bandits met soldiers on their way stream, shouldn't the okada rider had directed the soldiers to where the others were kept

Jakumo:



You have highlighted the greatest benefit of cheap surveillance drones, which is that they can pinpoint the location of criminal encampments very quickly and without alerting the targets that the police have their coordinates that will used be to coordinate ambush attacks that have the potential to save kidnap victim lives. The element of surprise works in favor of law enforcement consistently, once it becomes possible to view real-time or recently filmed surveillance video footage during those vital minutes when task-force commanders plan counterattacks against hidden criminals so easily spotted from the air.

richiemcgold:

One of the two siblings kidnapped was a seven-year-old boy. His 21-year-old sister and their mother were abducted from their residence. Their mother died from exhaustion in the forest while we were being led around by the bandits. They were hitting us with sticks and blows....

This is where I stopped reading. I can't bear the gory tales anymore.
Some people are damn wicked! Chei!

Curious345:
See as herdsmen are massacring my Yruba brothers like flies.. this got to stop! 🛑🛑

Cooldowntemper:


Where are the COWS?

Is Evans a herdsman?