Businesswoman, Blessing Ebun-Adigun got more than she bargained for. The mother-of-four was kidnapped on Tuesday 6th of September along Lagos/Ibadan expressway.
While talking to some journalists about her ordeal in the hands of the kidnappers, Blessing narrated how she was abducted while on her way back to Lagos from Ile-Ife on a business trip.
In her words:
‘We normally charter a minibus for delivery and movement of supplies around the Southwest. It was a two-day trip and we had made the last delivery in Ile-Ife on our way back our vehicle broke down while approaching Ibadan. We all alighted and it took us about 45 minutes to fix the car and we proceeded on our journey. It was about 6:45 pm and I was fast asleep in the car due to the stress I had gone through in the course of the journey. Suddenly, I heard a bang and gunshots and immediately I woke up in the confusion to see our driver jumping out of the car, crossing the road, and being pursued by three men” she recounted amidst sobs and how she was whisked away by four other men into the thick forest where they joined other captives who claimed they had been abducted for two days.
‘We were three occupants abducted from my car aside from our driver that ran out and we didn’t know his fate. We were blindfolded the first night and woken up the next day around 5 am and we started walking into the thick forest heavily guarded by three armed men who took turns to flog us whenever they thought our movement was slow. I made a mental head count and discovered we were ten in number, having met 7 people already in captivity, 3 men and four women.
“On the second day, a man and a woman were taken away after the leader of our gang received a call, we didn’t know where they were taken to but they left and we remained 8′.Â
‘The first day we shifted bases twice, we were poorly fed and tied together at night, beaten and left to sleep on the cold rock.
On the second day, one of our abductors came with the documents, receipts and phones taken from our bus and called the three of us to identify ourselves, forced to apply the passwords to our phones while some contacts were written down. One of the kidnappers took my identity card and wrote down my address and my husband’s phone number in a notebook. On the third night, two of our abductors left the camp and we were left with an armed man who was barking out orders and threatening to shoot us. I was already dozing off in my sitting position when I heard a loud argument between our abductor and one of the women, later the woman started screaming and the man was flogging her, I didn’t know what got into me as I stood up, walked up to them and I started shouting Jesus! Jesus! I dragged the woman up and faced the armed man who pointed his gun at us but looked confused while mumbling some orders. I noticed he was shocked as I continued screaming Jesus! Jesus! and dragged the other woman with me into the bush and we fled’.
Blessing and the other woman were later discovered at a farm near Ajebo and were promptly taken to the police station.
Now reunited with her family, the businesswoman said she does not know the fate of the other captives as she couldn’t give a perfect description of where they were held to the police who claimed their men were combing the forest in a rescue mission.
Blessing’s husband, Mr Olusegun Ebun explained how he was contacted by the kidnappers on his phone and they demanded N50 million.
He claimed he was contacted by an anonymous line where the caller gave him a deadline to pay the ransom or face the consequence.
Blessing Ebun-Adigun‘s story was among the many gripping, kidnapping tales which is fast becoming a trend in Nigeria.
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