₦airaland Forum

Kidnapped Tricycle Operator Uses Igbo Language to Alert Community, Foils Bandits' Ransom Demand in Abia

A local tricycle operator, Mr. Dennis Izuchukwu Okechi, has recounted how six armed bandits threatened to shoot him dead after he used the Igbo language to secretly alert his community to his location during a kidnapping ordeal in Ohuhu, Umuahia North Local Government Area.

Okechi and Mrs. Onyinyechi Ekechukwu, a farmer, were abducted around 3:00 p.m. last Wednesday while returning from their farm in the Umuawa Alaocha community. The bandits dragged them into the bush, where they inflicted wounds on both victims and demanded a ₦10 million ransom.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Okechi described the dramatic moment when the kidnappers handed him his phone to contact his family. Instead of using English, he quickly switched to Igbo to reveal their exact location in the Udengwu forest.

“I quickly used the Igbo language to alert them about the area where the bandits had dragged me and Auntie Onyinyechi. I told them that I was being held in the Udengwu area, and this helped my people to know the location where we were being held,” Okechi narrated.

He continued: “But the bandits became angry at me for not speaking English so that they could hear what I told my people. They threatened to shoot me.”

The victims were rescued around midnight the same day by the Umuawa Alaocha community security outfit after youths and leaders mobilized and combed the forest following Okechi’s alert. The bandits, who reportedly spoke a strange language and identified themselves as “bandits,” fled through another route in the bush upon noticing the approaching rescue team.

Okechi expressed deep appreciation to the youths and leaders of his community for their swift response, which led to their rescue.

In reaction to the incident, the member representing Ikwuano/Umuahia Federal Constituency, Hon. Obi Aguocha, strongly condemned the attack on his Ohuhu community. He called for increased vigilance across Ohuhu and other parts of Igboland to curb the rising threat of banditry and kidnapping.

Did you see how youths of a community in Abia State rescued kidnapped victims without waiting for the Police or Soldiers. This is what we call braveness, I give it to them.

This useless islamic bandits and Terrorists (BAT) were brought in by APC

madridguy yerimo heliuses

The truth is that those bandits will run when you faced them they only understand violence for violence
Them get luck it wasn't ohafia sha

Nairalandnigga:
Did you see how youths of a community in Abia State rescued kidnapped victims without waiting for the Police or Soldiers. This is what we call braveness, I give it to them.

This is what we call bravery, not braveness!

Igbos are fearless

This is the Igbo people I know, fearless

Seunpapa65:
The truth is that those bandits will run when you faced them they only understand violence for violence
Them get luck it wasn't ohafia sha

Ohafia will not show mercy oh! Most villages in Abia state will not take a criminal caught in the act to Police station let alone a kidnapper.

I urge the South East Governors to to fully armed the Youths in their various Communities, because this Ter@orist have surrendered our bushes.

It still worries me how a stranger from the North will travel down to South , just to cause Insecurity.

Abia and some parts in Imo state don't joke with unfamiliar faces. In Mbaise or Obowo if you waka anyhow inside push na sorry go be your own and it won't even make it news. Those ones no the do video o