A kidnapper’s victim, Alexander Ugwu, explained how he was abducted by gunmen when he was coming to his base in Benue State from a trip on 2nd March.
Ugwu also narrated how he was billed to pay a ransom higher than others when kidnappers realised he was from the East.
While responding to an interview, the, 53 yrs-old Alexander Ugwu disclosed that he was on a trip from Iheakpu-oka village to Anyigba, and had boarded a vehicle going to Ejule from an Army checkpoint that is located between Aloma and Ejule.
Ugwu narrated: “on our way, we encountered heavily armed men who were stopping vehicles, shooting and abducting people. All the six people who were in the car including the driver were kidnapped”.
He added: “the kidnappers took us into the bush, and from there, they began to call our families one-by-one for ransom”.
“I was surprised when the kidnappers told me that i would have to pay 10 million naira as ransom before i would be released. Meanwhile, the money the kidnappers collected from other victims was not even close to that”.
“Before my phone went off, the first relation that I could speak to over the phone was my cousin, Elias Ugwu, whose father is my father’s elder brother. I called him and told him the kidnappers were requesting N10 million because, according to them, once an individual is from the Eastern part of the country, he or she must be wealthy”.
“I explained to them that I didn’t have money. They countered, saying if I didn’t have money, my relatives must had.
“Meanwhile, they collected a ransom of N130,000 from the driver’s family. Also, they collected N200,000 as ransom from the family of a first-year student at Kogi State University, KSU, who is from Ogugu, in Kogi State.”
” I was shocked by the amount of money that the student and driver were asked to pay, and i ask the kidnappers why my case was different”.
“The kidnappers later reduced the money to N4 million. But tragedy happened when my cousin came to deliver the ransom to secure my release”.
According to him, his cousin, Elias Ugwu, an Enugu-based lawyer went with his colleague to bail him from kidnappers camp. It was reported that they had succeeded in doing so, but their joy was cut short when a team of police officers who were on the trail of bandits that had earlier raided some banks and police stations in Anyigba accosted them and opened fire on their vehicle. The driver, who is a legal practitioner was killed in the process.
