One of the two corps members who was freed from bandits’ den, Jennifer Iorliam, has described their seven-day ordeal in captivity as a terrible experience.
Iorliam, with Joseph Aondona, and four others, were abducted last Tuesday on their way to the National Youth Service Corps Orientation Camp in Kebbi State.
The corps members, who were freed on Tuesday after their abductors collected N9 million ransom, boarded a bus from Benue to Sokoto State but their vehicle was intercepted around Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
They had planned to board another bus from Sokoto to their destination in Kebbi State.
It was gathered that the bandits reached out to the victims’ families, demanding N2 million ransom each.
According to Iorliam, their driver had slowed down to navigate through the potholes on the road when the kidnappers shot into the air and came out from the bush.
The kidnappers gave them poor food and dirty water during their stay in captivity.
She said, “Some of them were dressed in military camouflage. They ordered us from the vehicle and took us into the bush. The driver and one other person escaped. The bandits collected the money we had on us and led us deeper into the bush where some people carried us on motorcycles.
“They stopped at a stream and asked us to cross to the other side. We continued the journey, climbing mountains before we got to where they held other people captive. There were many people there; I couldn’t count them. That night, some people escaped. The next day, they started chaining us so that we would not escape,” she said.
She added that two days later, the bandits took them out on bikes to search for a mobile network, saying that after a long journey along the bush path, the abductors found a network on a mountain and contacted their family members for ransom.
She said the kidnappers returned them to the den and took them to another location after two days for further negotiation of ransoms on the phone.
“We got scared at a point when there were disagreements over the ransoms. They were threatening to kill us. For the seven days that we spent there, they were giving us bread and biscuits. They gave us stagnant, muddy water to drink. When we fell sick, they gave us the same water to drink.
“I had a stomach ache one day, and the other time, I had a serious fever. They boiled the dirty water and gave it to me to drink. The nasty memory is still fresh. Even when I am in the midst of people, it keeps replaying in my head,” she said.
