Evan promised to attend my thanksgiving service - chief james uduji, victim tell his story

The day of the kidnap
On September, 2015, as I was coming back from
my factory in Agbara to my home in Festac,
arriving Seventh Avenue, I saw four gun men.
They stopped in front of my vehicle and started
shooting while I was with my two drivers in my
Hilux pickup. Chief James Uduji
Change of baton
After a long journey, they stopped at a particular
area, those guys jumped down and another group
came on board and zoomed off again. As we
were going, we got to one house, they called the
security guard who came and opened the gate,
and they brought me out, gathered water,
changed their cloths and called one doctor,
whether he was quack or not, I do not know.
They told the doctor they had emergency. The
doctor came, washed me and treated my wound.
That was the first thing they did.
Though, when we were about to get to where
they wanted to take me to, they blind folded me.
They were administering two injections on me
daily. When I asked them the kind of injection
they were giving me, they said it was anti
tetanus injection and pain reliever. They refused
to give me water saying that if you have bullet in
your body, you don’t drink water. The second
day, Evans came there with the doctor and said
to me that, he came there because of me. Yet, I
did not set my eyes on him. Maybe, the person
that asked them to kidnap me told them that
they should not let me die. I said this because of
the kind of treatment they were giving me or
maybe, it could be because of my wound. But, I
was seriously bleeding. At a point, they were
thinking of exchanging me. They called my
brother to come and let me go out and treat
myself of the bullet wound. My elder brother
accepted to come but backed out at the end
because those people, you never know what they
planned. May be their plan was to capture the
two of us before they would kill us.
It was an ugly situation. They injected me for
seven good days. From that Monday till the next
Sunday, every two days, there was a particular
guy that came there to treat my wounds, dress it
and put the bandage again. After some days,
Evans called.
How they operate
How they operate is that, they keep a hostage
keeper, which is someone that would be guiding
kidnap victims so that any time their boss wants
to call, he would call that person. When he calls
the person, the person would bring the phone to
the victim and hold the phone for you talk to
him. They were always communicating. They did
not maltreat me because of my condition but I
heard them maltreating the victim in the other
room with hot iron and the person would be
crying. Before they start that, they would go and
put on their generator so that their neighbours
would not be hearing. That guy was a terror.
Feeding pattern
They were feeding me with one useless Indomie.
I was just managing to eat to keep my life
moving. They asked what kind of drugs I was
taking but I told them I was not on drugs. I did
not make trouble with them but there was a day
I tried to escape. I was scared whether all the
neighbours were their gang members or not.
Again, even if I would have escaped, I would
have been naked because before you go to the
bathroom, they take away your boxers. When you
finished, you knocked at the door and turned
your face to the wall as they gave you your
boxer to wear.
They would blind fold you and put you in chains
again. Early morning I used to hear siren and I
thought, that it was police that were coming to
rescue me. At the end nothing would happen.
They would go. What were they coming to do
there around 4:00 am to 5:00 am? I noticed that
five times and I asked myself, “what the police
are coming there to do?”. I also noticed there
was a construction site nearby where people
were working. One particular day, one boy came
in and asked “mummy, who is this uncle?”. I was
listening and waited to hear what the woman
would say but she did not say anything. So, that
couple that was paraded were there. I was
praying every minute of the day, waiting for
anything that would happen the next day. It was
traumatising . So many things happened. I knew
that, nothing would happen to me but they would
charge me more money. You know, I paid $1.2
million. We paid it in three instalments. We paid
two hundred thousand dollars, eight hundred
thousand dollars and another two hundred
thousand dollars. He claimed that, the first two
hundred dollars we paid had been cancelled
because we set them up by inviting security
agents to be tracking them. That’s how we were
accused and that the payment had been
rubbished. He bargains with the victims, he
doesn’t bargain with the families. Whatever he
asked for that is what the family would pay. A
person that is under chain, what would he say?
Anything they asked you to do, you just had to
do it because of your life. That was not joke,
they meant business. If you refused to corporate,
they would kill you. I am sure; they have killed
some people there. I stayed there for six weeks.
I was abducted on the 7th of September and I
was released on the 19th of October, 2015.
What led to my release?
After I had finished paying the ransom, they still
kept me for another eight days. My people were
worried, and I was worried too because I did not
know what was going on outside. They had cut
off communication with everybody. Immediately,
he collected his ransom, he travelled abroad. He
goes outside to keep his ill-gotten wealth, which
was obvious. I now asked the hostage keeper,
how long it takes them to release a hostage. He
said four days, I now asked again, but why am I
still here? He then said I should not worry, that
the chairman travelled and that I would be
released as soon as he returned. He said that I
should see myself as a free man and relax. The
man was a greedy man. Of all the money we
paid him, he didn’t feed us well. His duty, I
observed, was to collect money and drop
victims. When he came back to Nigeria, he came
to me where I was detained by his men and said
to me that, today, you will go. He ordered his
boys to bring all my belongings. My Rolex watch,
my bag, my golden ring and my sandals were
nowhere to be found. Not to talk of cash
because all of them were criminals. All other
valuables were gone. They only brought my
cloths, bank cheque books and seals and a
polythene bag. And for my sandals, they bought
one bathroom sleepers for me. Just imagine
someone coming back from his office. Then, he
asked me to hold on till the road was free; it was
about 5:00 pm.
How Evans promised to attend my thanksgiving
in church
As I was waiting, he came back and called me,
Nnwa which is my title name. Any time he
wanted to talk to me he first called me Nnwa.
When he saw my wound, he said, I was a lucky
man. That, my God is a great God. He said that,
I would live up to hundred years for surviving
that gunshot. I asked him why they were
shooting us like that. He said in war all was fair.
I then asked “you and who were fighting?. Did I
have gun with me?”. Evans now asked who was
the person in front of my car. That was when
they thought I was a policeman. In fact they
would have killed my driver if he were a
policeman. When he came down and they asked
him, he told them he was just an ordinary driver.
That was when they left him. He advised me to
buy a lot of drinks because many people would
be coming to sympathize with me. He stressed
that people were already waiting for my arrival.
He said: “Any day you are going to do
thanksgiving, we are going to be there.” I now
asked him, how would I know you will be there?
He replied that, I shouldn’t worry; he would come
and follow me to thank God. “Nnwa, but your
God is great oh”.
All these things he was talking, my mind was not
there because I knew he was wicked. That
evening, he brought ten thousand naira that I
should take it. That if, they drop me anywhere, I
should use it to enter taxi to my house. Or if I
wanted, they could drop me in a nearby hotel so
that, I could call my people to come and carry
me. But I told him to just drop my anywhere he
wanted. When it became dark everywhere, they
took me out of that house and moved me round
the city before finally dropping me around Lagos
State University (LASU, side in Iyana Oba. Even
to walk was a problem because, I had been in
chains for long and all my bones had grown
weak. I almost fell down while trying to cross the
road because of my wobbling legs. I lost so
much energy that, I became weak, lean and
tired.
Suya was the first thing I ate after my release
from captivity
I called a motorcyclist to take me to any nearby
bus stop, which he did. When I turned the other
side, I saw one man selling roasted meat (Suya),
I went to him and bought the meat for one
thousand naira and started eating. My action was
to soften the ground for me to start asking
question that would let me know exactly where I
was as by this time I never knew where I was
exactly. I asked the man, how I could get to Mile
2, and he said before you get to Mile 2, you first
of all get to LASU. I asked again, how I could I
get to LASU, he told me to cross the road to the
other side and enter any bus that was going that
way. As soon as I entered the bus, I switched on
my phones and there was no single credit on my
phones except the one we used as a company
group. That one doesn’t need credit because we
pay once in a month. I now used it to call one of
my managers. Immediately he saw my call, he
knew I was out and asked me where I was so
that he could come and carry me. I told him to
come to LASU, I got there and was waiting for
him. He was coming from Agbara axis. While
there, I strolled down a bit to buy orange, one
man just came to me that I should give him
money in spite of my tattered appearance. I took
two thousand out of the ten thousand Evans
gave to me and gave to him. I was kind of hiding
so that people who knew me before would not
notice me until I got home. When my manger
came, he took me straight to the house after
that, I went to report officially to the police.
Even the commissioner of police came to my
house after that. After that incident, I requested
for police protection which I was later provided
with. I was so happy when I heard that, the guy
has been arrested. I thank the Nigeria police for
doing a great job. That shows that, if the police
want to work, they could work.

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