A 41-year-old timber merchant, Mrs Folakemi Fadoju, who was abducted with her seven-year-old son, in Ondo town, headquarters of Ondo West Local Government Area of Ondo state, by some four gunmen has regained her freedom from her captives after spending four days.
Fadoju, while narrating her ordeal and how she miraculously escaped from the den of her captives after spending four days, explained that the four-man-gang invaded the sawmill located in Oka along Ondo-Ore road around 6:45 am while she was at the sawmill to settle a business transaction
The traumatised mother of three said the hoodlums, who blindfolded her, bundled her and her sick son in a waiting vehicle, shooting into the air, before taking her to a forest along Ore- Ijebu Ode where she spent four days without food or water.
According to her, the hoodlums contacted her husband and negotiated for N15m ransom to secure her freedom and her little boy.
“They told me they were kidnappers and said they abducted me because of ransom. They said if I don’t have money they will take my life,” she said.
She said her abductors tied her and two other persons she met inside the forest and subjected them to all forms of torture and threatened to kill her and her son if the husband failed to produce the ransom within 48 hours.
Giving a vivid account of what actually happened while speaking with Tribune Online, she said “I left early for sawmills to attend to some business and pay my workers who are travelling on this fateful day, but no sooner that I entered the sawmill, these men dragged me into their vehicle, blindfolded me and drove off.
“They drove for some hours and we had to trek to their hideouts where I met two other people tied to the trees. They demanded my phone which they used to call my husband. They threatened to kill me if my husband tried to play smart by informing the police.
“They demanded N15m but after several negotiations, they agreed to N10m which should be produced under 48 hours. They tortured me and others with no food or water to drink but they gave my boy water for four days. They operated in the forest like a king.”
She however said her escape from the hands of the kidnappers was made possible due to divine intervention, and could not explain what happened in the forest while the abductors had to leave them alone.
She said “on the fourth day, we started hearing gunshots in the forest, it was an exchange of gunfire and it was so heavy that the two men assigned to guard us had to leave to join other members of the gang to see what was happening.
“They warned us against leaving the camp but no sooner they left and, then, one of us suggested we should try to escape and it worked. Even though I was weak, tired and sick but I managed to walk for over an hour before coming out at the J4 area where we met a Samaritan who listened to our story and took us to the police in Ondo town”.
She said the case had been reported earlier at the Yaba police station by her family but said she was rushed to the hospital immediately, saying, “these men beat and tortured us, but I was rushed to the hospital because I was injured while trying to escape in the forest.
“It was a nightmare and the trauma is not explainable as the incident keeps recurring. I experienced it and survived it by the special grace of God. I never wished my worst enemy to go through what I passed through because it was so traumatising.
She, however, appealed to the security operatives in the state, to move into action and raid all the forests along Ore/ Ijebu Ode road which the criminals use as their hideouts saying many people are still in that forest waiting to be rescued.”
However, the police in the state has assured residents of the state of their safety promising to put in more security measures to prevent cases of kidnapping just as it said there’s no room for criminals and their activities.
The spokesman for the command Funmilayo Odunlami said the command has declared total war on these criminals who want to give the peaceful sunshine state a bad name. THE NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
