The kidnapping of people for ransom is gradually creeping into Abuja, the nation’s capital as some criminally minded people have embraced the deadly business, and making money from it with relative ease. ONWUKA NZESHI reports on a recent episode.
THE KIDNAP
The ordeal of Rhoda Samuel began on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. The time was about 7:20 pm when Samuel, a middle age woman and civil servant, drove out of her compound in her car and headed towards a nearby Pharmacy and Superstore to purchase some routine OTC drugs. She went along with her daughter, crossing the Zuba Expressway through the Federal Housing Bridge into Kubwa.
They stopped over at a Pharmacy near Soul Lounge but when they couldn’t get the drugs they needed there, they drove out to check at Nadrem Emporium and when still could not find the drugs there, they moved over to another Pharmacy along Gado Nasko Road, where they eventually bought the drugs.
Apparently, while they were moving from one place to the other, some armed men were tailing them, waiting for an opportunity to strike. She recounted: “We were on our way back home and on top of the bridgewhen a car just drove close to my car. Initially, I didn’t even notice that there was a car following us because I didn’t see the lights. The next thing I noticed was that the car was coming very close to me as if it was going to brush my car.
So, while I was like thinking: Who’s this? What is it? The car blocked the road totally, forcing me to apply the brakes. Some men came out of the vehicle armed with guns and started shooting into the air. They also shot at my car and deflated the tyres. “Then, they came closer, opened the car and took me and my daughter out.
Later, I discovered that they picked only me, put me in their own car and left my daughter. As they drove away with me in their car, they masked me, pressed me down and took me to an unknown destination. As we were going, they started asking me about my phone which they had earlier collected from me. They took it from my purse.
They started asking me about the pin to unlock my phone and get into my bank account. “So, when they were asking me those questions, I was terrified because I didn’t know what had happened to me. I was just shouting: Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! One of them asked the person pinning me down to give me a slap.
So he gave me a heavy slap on my cheek which also affected my ear. They said that they were not joking with me and that they were serious. They said they were a well organised group, they had the Police and other security agencies behind them.”
RANSOM DEAL
The kidnap gang, according to her, were about three men. It was already dark and the moment they took her into their car, they drove off to an unknown destination. When they arrived, they took her into a house with her face still hooded, making it impossible for her to know exactly her location.
In the usual fashion, the kidnappers soon began to use her mobile phone to make contacts with her family. Saturday Telegraph gathered that the moment they established contact with the lady’s husband, they demanded that the sum of a hundred thousands dollars ($100,000) be provided as ransom for them to release her.
They also warned the family not to report the incident to the police but to cooperate fully with them if they wanted her back alive. “Fortunately for me, they didn’t harm me. They told me they were not going to harm me. They said they just want money from my husband and that if my husband is going to give them money, they will release me.
“They went into my account and made away with some of the money I had in my savings. While they kept me there, they were communicating with my husband. At the end of the day, I regained my freedom after a week and a day. They drove me back to a place and called my husband to cone and pick me. They were using my phone for all their communications with my husband.
“Before dropping me off, they asked me where I live and I told them. So they now dropped me somewhere on the Kubwa Expressway. They called my husband and told him they will drop me at a particular spot but they didn’t drop me there. They dropped me before the place and asked him to come and pick me. So, that was how my husband came and picked me there and here we are today,” she said.
Saturday Telegraph learnt that though the family lodged a complaint at the Police Station as soon as the incident happened, it amounted to nothing. The usual lackadaisical attitude of the Police to incidents of kidnap, missing person, car theft and even armed robbery played out.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY
On how she survived the eight traumatic days in the kidnapper’ s den, Rhoda disclosed that surprisingly, her abductors were friendly, didn’t harm her but were giving her food throughout the period.
“They would ask me what I wanted to eat. Sometimes I wouldn’t have the appetite; they would give me food and I would not be able to eat it. So, they became concerned about me. You know, I have ulcer, so the thing normally affects my chest when I eat.
So I presented it as if it was breast cancer and was using that as a bargaining chip to appeal to them to release me. “They wanted to even buy the drugs for me if I could name them. I also have BP problem.
They asked for the names of my drugs and they bought them for me. On one of those days, I had a running stomach. They were concerned, they gave me drugs to calm it down.”
COMPASSION OR TACTICS
But were they really concerned about her? Perhaps they showed some concern but were they doing all that to keep her alive because she held the key to their expected fortune. They were waiting for a huge sum of money. It could not be confirmed how much they eventually got, but the fact remains that they cashed out in a big way without the security agencies lifting a finger.
Unlike the typical image of kidnap- ers, the lady disclosed that her abductors didn’t look or sound like ruffians Samuel recalled: “They were decent. All of them are graduates. They were very decent looking people. They are young guys with whom I even had to engage in some conversations.
“I asked them: Why are you doing this? One of them told me that it is because of the economic situation in the country. They want money because they want to take care of their needs too. They said there is money in the country but a few people are controlling the money. So anyhow, they also want to survive. This kidnapping) is a means of survival for them.
So I told them that: Yes, Nigeria has happened to you, Nigeria has also happened to me. I’m also in that divide where you are; I’m also a graduate and I’m still schooling. I have two degrees and I’m undergoing my Master’s programme now. I don’t even have a good job. “My husband is a civil servant too but works with a private firm where they depend on government contracts and the company is not moving. So invariably, there is no money. The kind of money you are demanding – $100,000 – from where do you want us to get that money?
I told them: Just take my case as a bad market. They said kidnappers don’t have bad market. At the end of the day, I admonished the one that was talking to me that this (kidnapping business) is not good. “You know these people causing the problem of our country. If you want to get to them, you know where to get them.
We are all in the same mess. I’m also suffering the same way you’re suffering. The only difference is that I have not chosen this path. At the end of the day, I requested for a Bible, they gave me one. They were actually good but they are victims of a failed society. “You know that I’m also into research. I’m a social scientist. I’m a political scientist.
I could understand the motives behind what is going on in our country. It’s a kind of revolt against a failed system that has turned every- body into what they have become. You know, if the country was actually moving forward, people that are schooled, people that are well learned will not be going through hell. But because of our bad situation, mass unemployment, a lot of people have taken to criminality. I sympathised with them. It’s just unfortunate that I was also a victim of the same thing they were crying about.
So, I asked them to stop it, but they said that is what they have chosen. “At the end of the day, when they released me, we prayed together. I told them I don’t have any grudge against them but that they should know that what they are doing is not right. I asked that God should touch their hearts so that they would stop this thing. So they prayed with me.
They didn’t beat me. They didn’t molest me. They brought me back in one piece and I’m grateful to God that I’m here today, healthy and alive. ”
BENEVOLENT ABDUCTORS
Again the story of Rhoda Samuel was unique because not only were her abductors civil and considerate, they even provided her with some transport fare to go home. “They put N2,000 in my purse. They were actually very good people. At the end of the day, I prayed to God for their lives. I don’t want them to get killed.
I want God to arrest them, let them repent of their sins and change for the better. If everybody wants to react against the failed system and everybody picks up arms and starts attacking others, the country will not be safe for anybody. “On the part of the government, those in authority should realise that when the governed are neglected, they would want to do anything to survive.
Today, the people in power believe that they have security but it is the same money that is meant for our collective security that they are using for their own personal benefits. They have peo- ple that are guarding them 24 hours a day and they have every- thing that they need to live comfortable lives. They feel that they are secured and do not care about the rest of us. But they are making a mistake.”