Victim narrates ordeal in kidnappers’ hands, ask government to address insecurity

An employee of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), Inusa Magaji, who was kidnapped along Airport Road, Mando, in Kaduna, has narrated his ordeal after regaining his freedom on Monday. He also called on the Federal Government to intensify the fight against kidnapers in the state, especially in the Birnin-Gwari axis.

According to him, the marauders are becoming emboldened and heartless, as they boast of killing and selling vital organs of victims that fail to pay ransom.

Magaji said: “On February 11, as a NRC worker attached to Kaduna-Abuja railway, at about 7:30p.m. I went to refuel my tank at the airport road filing station. On my return to the station, I saw six men in military camouflage along Mando road, they flashed me down with their touch lights. I stopped, thinking they were military personnel. They approached and told me to step out of the car, before identifying themselves as kidnapers.

“They forced me to trek about five kilometers into the bush where they later called seven of their members who arrived on motorcycles to convey us farther into their hideout. At this point I was blindfolded and my hands tied to the motorcycle.

When we arrived at their hideout, I met other victims who they proudly boasted to have kidnapped on the same route. They commanded me to unlock my phone’s security at gunpoint, which I did.

“They scrolled through my bank account and asked me to give them three people’s numbers, who they can open communication with. I gave them my son and wife’s numbers, which they contacted to demand N24 million ransom. I told them I don’t have such amount of money.

“After negotiation and threats, they reduced it to N2 million and I still pleaded with them that there is nowhere I can raise that amount as a civil servant. On the second day, they asked me how much I could raise and I told them I have N400,000 in my account. They later called my son and told him if he intend to see his father again, he should go and look for N500,000.

“I am calling on the Federal Government to do something urgent to address the situation and save many people who are still in the hands of the kidnapers. I am lucky to be alive today, but they showed me bodies of victims who even after paying the ransom were killed and their organs harvested.”