Abduction: For Benue : For Benue indigenes, one week, one trouble
From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
In the past several months, the gale of abductions for ransom has been sweeping through the country. And whatever demon or spirit that might be behind the heinous crime seems to have its sight trained on Benue indigenes. Proof: about nine of them have been kidnapped in places like Ibillo, Edo State, Tsafe Local Government Area in Zamfara State, and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory within the past two or three weeks.
While some have been released after paying heavy ransoms running into millions, others have not been so lucky, as their families are still struggling to source for funds with which to pay for their ransom. Of the lot, the most pathetic is that of Tordue Salem, a reporter with Vanguard newspapers. Abducted in Abuja over a week ago, his whereabouts have sadly remained unknown till now. This is despite several calls and protests by colleagues, friends, relatives, and other well-meaning groups including the Chief Iorbee Ihagh-led Tiv socio-cultural Organization known as Mzough-U-Tiv Worldwide.
Among the lucky ones is Augustus Asen, a civil servant working in Lagos. Tuesday, October 12, 2021, would remain unforgettable in his life. This is because it was that day that he, alongside four others, was abducted by kidnappers on the highway around Ibillo community in Edo State while on his way to Makurdi, the Benue State capital. From there, he had intended to go home to his village to attend his younger sister’s burial.
Journey into captivity
With that began another round of journeys to the kidnappers’ den that started at about 3 pm that fateful day and ended five days later with the payment of heavy ransom by each of the kidnapped victims. He narrated his ordeal to Saturday Sun.
His story: “On Tuesday, October 12, 2021, I boarded a Makurdi-bound Benue Links vehicle from Lagos. I was coming home to attend my younger sister’s burial. On our way around Ibillo in Edo State, we saw a police checkpoint and because they didn’t flag us down in time, our driver drove past them.
“A few kilometres after that checkpoint, we saw another police checkpoint and the police stopped us. They said the first police checkpoint informed them that we refused to stop earlier. So, they asked us to return to that first police checkpoint and we did. After so much pleading, they searched our vehicle and later allowed us to proceed. When we got to the next police checkpoint, they still delayed us for a while too, saying the first checkpoint should have informed them that they had released us to go.
“Eventually, they released us and we continued with our journey. Not long after that, we ran into this group of gun-wielding kidnappers. They were Fulani and they threatened to shoot if our driver did not stop. So, he had no choice than to stop. Four of us were abducted from our vehicle and one other person from another bus behind us. So, five of us all together were abducted at that point that day at about 3 pm.
“The kidnappers now ordered us to start trekking into the forest from that 3 pm till around past midnight before they allowed us to take a rest. By the next morning, they started contacting our families. After looking at us, they said the other guy that was picked from the other vehicle and I were rich people. So, they told our families to pay N20 million each as ransom while they pegged the ransom money for the other three people at N10 million each. We kept pleading with them to reduce the money but they refused. They kept moving us from one location to another in the forest for days with little or no food to eat. We were drinking from dirty streams all through our stay in captivity. After so much begging, they reduced my ransom and that of the other guy to N3 million each and said that was the least they could go. I begged them to further reduce the money but they refused, saying my body size showed that I had money. They later agreed for the other guy to pay N2.5 million but insisted mine must be N3 million.
“Even after my family had struggled to raise N2.5 million, they refused to collect it but threatened to release others, before going to abduct other people to join me in the forest. They said if they did that, I would have to pay a higher ransom before I would be released. It was at that point that I begged my people to look for any means to get the N3 million complete because those people really rough-handled me.
“After the money was completed, they asked all our ransom bearers to meet them in Okene and then drive towards Ogori-Magongo. After they collected the ransom from them and confirmed that it was complete, they informed their other colleagues who were guarding us where to bring us. It was from there that they asked us to start running. We ran until we got to the main road where our ransom bearers picked us. That was on Saturday evening. I arrived at Benue on Sunday, a day after the burial of my sister.”
While thanking God for sparing his life despite the monetary loss as well as the physical and psychological trauma he went through, Asen advised the Federal Government to do everything possible to address the nagging issue of kidnapping and other security threats in the country, warning that if that is not quickly done, it may soon plunge the country into an abyss.
And just while the dust of Asen’s kidnap and release was settling, four other Benue indigenes were kidnapped in Zamfara exactly one week after the Ibillo incident.
Jennifer: Kidnapped while answering the national call to service
In fact, the family of one of the abducted victims, Jennifer Iorliam, a graduate of English Language youth corps member have been running from pillar to post to try to raise the ransom to secure her release as soon as possible. The graduate of English Language from the Benue State University (BSU) was on her way to Kebbi State to serve her fatherland when she was abducted alongside three other travellers around Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State on Tuesday, October 19, 2021. Others who were kidnapped along with Jennifer are Joseph Zakaa Aondona, Sedoo Gundu, and Sechivir.
The kidnapped victims were released about 6.30pm on Tuesday. It was gathered that the collaborative efforts of Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, Benue Links management, and the families of victims secured the release of two kidnapped NYSC members – Jennifer Awashima Iorliam and Joseph Zakaa as well as four others abducted by the kidnappers in Zamfara State.
Other victims that also regained their freedom were Sedoo Kondo, an undergraduate of Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, abducted on her way to school, Ruth Sesuur Tsokar, who was visiting a relative in Kebbi and two brothers, Saminu and Safiam Muhammadu who were on their way to Sokoto State., together with the corps members traveling in a Benue Links vehicle, ended up in the kidnappers den.
Jennifer’s family said the kidnappers had threatened to marry their daughter off if the ransom demanded was not paid in cash within a stipulated time. Juliet Iorliam, an elder sister to the 29-year-old lady, in a telephone conversation with our correspondent in Makurdi gave a vivid narration of what happened.
“Jennifer got her call-up letter on Monday, asking her to report to camp on Thursday. When we heard that she was posted to Kebbi, we were scared because of the happening in the country, especially in the core North. We didn’t even know where Kebbi is. Initially, we were thinking it is after Adamawa State. But when my sister called one of the drivers at the Benue Links park, he told her that Kebbi is after Sokoto and that there is no direct vehicle to that place from Benue. He then advised her to board a Sokoto-bound vehicle, and then connect Kebbi from there.
“He also told us that vehicles go to Sokoto from the Benue Links park only twice a week, namely Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, we reasoned that since our sister is supposed to report in camp on Thursday, it would be better she left on Tuesday. Juliet said she immediately informed Jennifer who was in town that Monday to go to Benue Links and book a ticket for her trip the following day. And she did.
“The following day which was Tuesday, my elder sister and I took her to the park and we were with her until the bus left around 8am. Even when we came back home, we kept calling her because the only place she had ever travelled to was Lafia when I was staying there. So, we kept calling her to know where she was and how the journey was going. We also collected the number of one Hausa guy who also boarded the same vehicle. We have known him for some time now because he used to supply my elder sister leather at her small provision store. We call him ‘Mai Leather’. When we saw him inside the bus and he told us he was also going to Sokoto, we were happy. I collected his number and also urged him to help us take care of our sister. The last time we spoke to my sister, she told us that they were in Zaria. Shortly after that, we would call and they would say her line is switched off. We would call that Mai Leather too and it was the same thing.
“Initially, we thought maybe they were out of service area but throughout that day, their lines didn’t go through. We couldn’t sleep that night. We tried their numbers till daybreak and it was the same story – switched off. The next day, we took another of our relatives who was posted to Gombe to the park too and while there, we told them that we had yet to hear from our sister who left the previous day for Sokoto. The man we met at the park assured us that there was no problem. He said if there was a problem, by then, they would have gotten the information. He said it could be that they were out of service area because of the happenings in the north. He said sometimes, they cut their network. We said okay and left the park.
How Juliet got the news of her sister’s abduction
Juliet said she had gone to make her hair in the market when she tried her sister’s line again and it rang for the first time in over 20 hours. She told Saturday Sun the story of what happened afterward.
“It was around noon, I called her line and it rang twice but she did not pick. I called Mai Leather and they said he was on another call. I ended the call and called my sister again but she did not pick.
“I called Mai Leather again, but while he was speaking, I wasn’t hearing him well because there was so much noise there. So, I felt maybe they were still on the way. When I called back again and was asking Mai Leather where my sister was, and why she was not picking her call, the voice from the other end who identified himself as the driver of the vehicle told me that ‘they don carry them’. I said carry who? He said: ‘dem attack us for road na. Dem don carry them. Dem carry your sister too go.’ That was what the driver told me. I was so shocked to my bones.
Juliet said she immediately left the market and rushed to her elder sister’s shop to tell her everything after which they both rushed to Benue Links Park to find out more.
“At the park they told us that they received a report that something like that happened but that they had reported the matter to the police. They then urged us to go, assuring that they would call us. But we were surprised that they received that kind of information and didn’t call us until we went there to find out ourselves. You know the number of a relative is usually written on the manifest paper but I was surprised that despite the fact that it was my number that was written down, nobody contacted me.
“Mai Leather told me that they took everybody in the vehicle away but that only he and the driver managed to escape. He said he lay under the vehicle and they didn’t see him. It so happened that my sister left her phone in that bus and the driver found it.”
She said the kidnappers later contacted the family. She said the criminals initially demanded N5 million ransom on her sister but after some negotiations, they brought it down to N2 million.
“On Thursday, they brought them to a network area but because my sister left her phone in the bus while they were being taken away, she could only call the phone number of our mother. The bandits called her. Before then, we hadn’t told our mother what happened. We only told her to come to Makurdi from her Gboko residence to come and sign some documents for our sister.
She was on her way to Makurdi when the bandits called. I was home when I heard my mum banging the gate and when I went out to meet her, she was crying and told me that Jennifer called her that she was kidnapped and that she should call that number back and I told her that we already knew and that was why we asked her to come to Makurdi. Immediately I called the number back, Jennifer picked and said that the people wanted to speak with someone who could speak Hausa. I told her that I don’t understand much of Hausa but the little I could understand, I would try and speak with them. So, she gave one of them the phone and he said we should pay N5 million.
“That was the first thing he said. I begged them to calm down and told them that my uncle would talk with them right away. I quickly forwarded the number to my elder sister who in turn sent it to one of our uncles, a Reverend Father. Last Friday, they spoke a lot from afternoon till evening. After so much bargaining, they first settled for N3million and then N2 million and they told us they were not reducing the amount further again. In the night, they called back again to say they would take them back to the bush where there’s no network by Monday. They said we should bring the money in cash to Zamfara State between now and Monday. They said if the money was not given to them by Monday, they would marry them off. We used to be six children but two died. So, we are now four, three girls and a boy. She’s the last among the girls while the boy is our last born.”
When asked if anyone in the family had any premonition that this could ever happen to their sister, Juliet said there was no such premonition, except the usual fear of insecurity that everyone is nursing because of the situation in the northern part of the country.
“She has pneumonia and she said that since then they have been staying in the bush. We only pray that she returns home safe.”
Well, that prayer got answered, as Jennifer and fellow abductees had been released.
