A rescued National Youth Service Corps member, David Ayodele, has recounted how kidnappers allegedly subjected him and other victims to threats and physical abuse after taking them into a forest in Kogi State.
Ayodele said the abductors warned the victims that they would be held for a month before being killed, while anyone who attempted to move without permission would be shot.
The corps member was among 15 NYSC members and six other people rescued by security forces from a forest in Kogi State after they were abducted while travelling from Bayelsa State to Abuja.
According to Ayodele, the ordeal began when the vehicle conveying the corps members was intercepted by armed men.
He said the driver initially attempted to escape but was stopped by the kidnappers, who forced the passengers out of the vehicle and marched 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 rounds of bullets in the air,” he recounted.
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 said the kidnappers later ordered the victims to sit down and threatened to keep them in the forest for a month before killing them.
“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 said.
The abductors also allegedly warned the victims against making any unauthorised movement.
“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,” Ayodele said.
He said the victims were subsequently moved repeatedly through the forest before troops eventually located and rescued them.
“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 commended the military, police, Department of State Services and local hunters for their roles in securing the victims’ release.
He said he had completed his NYSC orientation programme in Bayelsa and was returning to Abuja following his relocation when the journey was interrupted by the abduction.
“I did my orientation camp in Bayelsa camp,” he said.
He explained that corps members were transported from the camp to different destinations in organised vehicles and that he joined one of the vehicles heading to Abuja.
“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.
The Nigerian military had earlier confirmed the rescue of 21 victims, comprising 15 NYSC members, from the Egume-Ochaja forest in Kogi State.
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