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How I narrowly escaped death from ritualists

By Toyin Olasinde
26 January 2016   |   11:36 pm
A SCHOOL bus driver, of Effortswill Nursery and Primary School, Ejigbo, Lagos State, Shomefun Gbenga, who was abducted for four days by ritualists, was freed on Monday by his captors.

Gbenga

A SCHOOL bus driver, of Effortswill Nursery and Primary School, Ejigbo, Lagos State, Shomefun Gbenga, who was abducted for four days by ritualists, was freed on Monday by his captors.

Speaking to The Guardian, the 36-year-old man, described his release as God’s intervention, which kept him alive out of the eight people abducted.

It all began on Thursday January 21, 2016, at about 6.00p.m. “I went to visit one of my colleagues in Ejigbo, we were to go to a place together. On getting to his house, he told me he was not yet ready, that I should go and he would join me soon. I left his place and was almost approaching Powerline Bus Stop, when a Golf Three painted in red colour parked by me with three men inside.

“One of them alighted from the car with a gun and told me to enter . While I was trying to struggle with him, another came down from the car with a white handkerchief and wiped my face from behind with it. I was immediately forced into the car and I lost consciousness from then.”

Gbenga said when he regained consciousness, he found himself in a very small dark room with seven others whose legs and hands were tied together to forestall any attempt to escape. We couldn’t identify night from day or even see each others faces.

“I lost track of time but some hours after, four of the men came in with guns. They switched on the light and brought out pure water for us to drink. Then two people, a man and a woman, were taken out and never returned. About the same time the next day, the abductors returned to take away another two sets and I remember one of them said it is almost your turn.

“On the third day, they came again and took two more, leaving two of us left in the room alone. By this time, I had almost lost all hope of being alive. But I discovered that when they left us, one of the men was saying we should count ourselves lucky we still had some hours more to live.

“Eventually, the dreaded day came, the men came for us and covered our faces with masks. They pushed us out, saying any attempt to open the mask and we would be wasted. They took both of us into the car and drove us for more than an hour in the bush before we linked up with a main road. We were without explanation dropped at Benin-Ore Expressway without nothing on us, no money or phone to call anyone.
“We had to desperately beg cars to help us but none waited until a trailer stopped and brought us to Oshodi,” he narrated.

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