…Says Only Money can Save Victim
Ikeugonna Eleke in this interview speaks with a recently released victim of kidnapping in Anambra State who reveals his experience staying with his abductors for four days.
Tell us you name and what you do for a living
My name is Obinna Udemba. I’m a business man. I am into fabrication of empty plastic containers and I’m also a poultry farmer.
Can you tell us how you were kidnapped, and what your experience was while you were with your abductors?
On the 10th of December, 2024, I was going to my village in Ozubulu to supervise a building project when the incident happened. I was driving in my car, a Toyota Camry car, silver colour, somewhere around Mmili John, close to Ojoto in Idemili South Local Government Area, when I noticed that a Mercedes Benz SUV was following behind me. If I sped up, they sped, if I slowed down they slowed down too. I didn’t suspect anything because I felt someone driving a Mercedes Benz SUV could not be after someone who was driving an ordinary Toyota Corolla car, but as I approached Mmili John, they sped up, overtook and double crossed (sic) me.
They started shooting immediately and dragged me out of my car, blindfolded me and put me in their car. They were five in number. While three stayed with me in their own car, two drove my car after them. They blindfolded me and drove for a long distance before we entered into the bush. When I got there, I met two other young boys who had earlier been kidnapped. The information I got from the boys was that they were kidnapped from Ifite in Awka on a Monday night, while they kidnapped me on a Tuesday morning. They kept us there from that 10th December to 14th December.
When they took me there, they asked me how much I had in my account, and I told them I had just N2.2 million, but they told me they needed nothing less than N15 million from me before I could be freed. While they placed N15 million ransom on me, they said the other two boys would pay N10 million each before they could be released. They first took the N2.2 million in my account.
How did they take it?
How they collect money is that they will take it from your account and put it in an Opay Account, and now go out to withdraw it through POS operators. They did it to me and now gave me my phone to be calling my family and friends to send money. I first called my brothers and sister; then, I called my brother, Jeff Udemba, who lives in Australia, and they contributed money to me which was paid to the kidnappers. We stayed there for four days, together with the other boys I met in the forest, and it was not funny.
How did they feed you people?
They fed us once a day, and throughout that period, they tied our eyes. They will tell you that if you open your eyes, they will waste you. For me, I chose not to open my eyes so that I could remain alive. So, I left my blindfold the way it was. Usually, how they fed us was just once every day. It was either they brought garri and egusi soup, or they brought rice and pour palm oil on it and sprinkle salt on it. That was how we were surviving. They would also warn you that if you refused to eat and you died of hunger, they would still collect ransom from your family. They would tell you it was better for you to remain alive, so that they collect their ransom and send you back to your family.
How much did you pay at the end?
At the end of the day, they took N5 million from me and also collected my car, my gold and three of my phones.
What part of the state were you kept, and how were you released?
They tied our eyes all the time we were there, so I do not know the location where we were, but I was always hearing planes flying over our heads. The day they released us, they put us in the booth of their car and they got to a road by a bush where they stopped and removed us from the car, removed our blindfold and ordered us to face the bush and run into the bush. As we did, they shot into the air and drove off. We later saw a tricycle and we told him to take us to the nearest junction where we could find a vehicle to Awka, and to our greatest surprise, we were dropped at Igbariam Junction. What it means is that we were kept around the airport area in Umueri because planes were flying over our heads.
Those boys do not believe that there is anything like God. One day in the forest, I was praying in the morning when they came in. One of them asked me what I was doing. They told me there was nothing like God, and that if there was truly God and if he heard prayers, he would have saved me from being kidnapped. They told me that as long as I had been kidnapped, the only thing that could save me was money. In fact, one of them said to me that if God was truly in existence, why couldn’t he descend and take away his gun from him?
Are there lessons you learnt from your experience?
Yes, there are lessons I Iearnt. On the day they left us, they brought us together and were tutoring us. They told us we should not be leaving our houses very early in the morning, or staying late in the night as those are the periods they carry out their operations. They also told us that we should not be using expensive cars while moving around town because those are the things that attract them. During the days I stayed there, they were always beating us. They beat me until I thought I would die. One day, while they were beating me, their commander came and stopped them. He scolded them so hard, asking if they wanted to kill me. The leader even said sorry to me to placate me for the beating.
What advice do you have to give to society?
I want to use this opportunity to call on the Governor of Anambra State, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, to do more in the area of security. I know he is trying, but he needs to do more. He should concentrate on security because even if all the roads in Anambra are built today and the people who should be using them are all killed by kidnappers, it will still be of no benefit. Up till this moment, I have still not seen my Corolla car and other belongings they took. Government should intensify efforts to stop these happenings.
