Contrary to the claim by the Ondo State Police Command, the Youth Corps members that were kidnapped while returning from Anambra State after their orientation have revealed that the family of each of the victims paid a sum of one million Naira, before they were set free by the kidnappers.
The five victims, who include four corps members and one artisan, were kidnapped by the bandits at about 11.00 pm last Thursday at Omi Alafa Village in Ifon, Ose Local Government Area, of Ondo State and dragged into the forest.
The driver of the vehicle and one passenger sitting in front were shot dead by the bandits.
Narrating their ordeal, one of the Corps members, Patience Andrew, said the bandits contacted their families and demanded a sum of N30 million each for ransom but after much negotiation they agreed to collect one million Naira.
She described the four days experience in the den of the bandits as horrible and hellish, saying they were beaten black and blue by the kidnappers while they were given garri and dirty water to eat once a day.
Andrew said: “We boarded a bus from Abia State to Onitsha, but our driver was not fast enough, one of the park drivers took us to where we boarded another bus going to Akure.
“We got there around 2.00pm
but the driver did not take off immediately, so we left Onitsha park around 5.00 pm with nine passengers in a Sienna bus. We got to Ondo State around 10.00 pm, and that was when the incident happened. They flashed a torch light on the driver and the driver said: “Oga I no see you”.
“They just shot him twice the moment he made that statement and the woman sitting next to him was killed. One guy too was matcheted, two people died and we don’t know about the guy that was butchered because he ran away.
“Then they brought us out of the vehicle and took us inside the bush, we trekked from past 10 pm till around 7.00 am the following day in the bush. The kidnappers were five in number and their age-range should be around 25 years. They were speaking the Hausa/Fulani language and they had one interpreter.
“They tortured us and we were only given garri and water once a day. At first, they asked for N30 million per person but as the negotiation was going they brought it down to three million Naira so they now asked us to bring in one million Naira each.
“We slept inside the bush throughout the day. We heard the bark of a dog and the sound of a cow in the bush and we also passed through farmlands when we were coming out, and we didn’t meet anybody on the road then our brothers came with one million Naira.
The State Police Command had, in a statement, on Monday, claimed that the victims were abandoned following the hot pursuit men of the command gave them.
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