Academic staff members of the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) who were abducted by bandits last Tuesday have narrated their ordeal in the hands of their abductors and how they miraculously survived, IgbereTV reports.
The six victims, including children, were kidnapped at about 1am on November 2, 2021, when the gunmen stormed the University Staff Quarters, located in Giri, Gwagwalada and went away with them.
Their abductors demanded the payment of N300 million ransom until early hours of last Friday when the university management announced that they were rescued without any payment.
Sharing his experience with journalists, one of the victims, Professor Sumaila Joseph Obansa, whose two children were initially abducted by the gunmen before one of them was released to return that fateful day, said he never imagined he could go through the pains he went through in the hands of the abductors.
Obansa said, “They made us walk over a long stretch, day and night, and when it’s day time they blindfolded us. They didn’t allow us to eat anything, except once or twice when they fed us with garri using unclean water.
“Once I couldn’t move again after having trekked for a long time, and they kicked and threatened to waste me if I didn’t stand up. My son had to help me up. It was a very terrible experience; I had never trekked continuously for that long in my life. You will not even wish this to happen to your worst enemy. I just had to be praying to God for protection.
“Thank God, our prayers and those of everyone who cared were answered. And God used our leaders in the university, security operatives and other well-wishers, and ensured that we are safe at last,” he said.
In his account, Professor Bassey Ubom, popularly known as Oboskolo, said it was an experience one would not wish for his worst enemy.
He said, “I have never been so humiliated in my life. And it was painful knowing that you are here and your loved ones are in the forest with criminal elements.
“At a point, you thought maybe you should not have escaped from them. With the benefit of hindsight, I now know that God had a hand in my escape because I had to be here to rally the others whose loved ones have been kidnapped, consoling them and above all, getting involved in high level negotiation with those elements, who were asking for outrageous ransom.”
He said the experience they went through in the hands of the abductors can only be better imagined.
