A public servant, Mr Surajudeen Olasinde, on Monday, narrated how his wife Mrs Mistura, and his two daughters; Hauwa and Fatima, were kidnapped around Galadima District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Olasinde, a staff of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), said the incident occured on Friday, Sept. 8, when his wife and the children were driving home in their Toyota Highlander from Garki to Starwood Estate where they reside.
“Their abduction happened around 7pm last Friday on their way from Garki. Immediately they reached Kabusa Garden Estate at the spot where the road was terribly bad, the kidnappers came out from the nearby bush and attack them.
“They started shooting to scare people away before they marched them into the bush,” he said
He said residents of the area quickly called the Divisional Police Station at Galadimawa immediately the news got to them and the DPO, Mr Jerry Cole, led a team of his officers to comb the bushes in collaboration with men of the vigilante.
He said the search effort was, however, unsuccessful.
Olasinde, an indigene of Offa in Kwara, said he was away in the state when the incident happened.
“I was not in Abuja when it happened because I have been transferred to Kwara State.
“But I was told that the police and the vigilantes searched the bush all through 3am on Saturday without success.
“We also contacted officers of the Department of State Services (DSS). They tracked the kidnappers’ movement and the search got to a forest in Kuje,” he said.
Olasinde, who arrived in Abuja on Saturday, said their captors called his brother-in-law to demand for a N100 million ransom.
“They asked for N100 million. Later, they brought it down to N50 million, then to N10 million.
“But at the end of the day, they asked us how much we had with us.
“The kidnappers even told us that if they killed my wife and my two daughters, they could sell their body parts above whatever amount we claimed to have.
“We resorted to begging, pleading with them not to harm or kill my family,” he said sadly.
According to him, when we told them that we didn’t have much money, they asked us about the Toyota Highlander and we told them that it was part of what we sold out to raise the money we planned to give them.
Olasinde, who said they were able to raise about N2.8 million, said the kidnappers directed them to bring the ransom Saturday night.
“They directed us to bring the money around 8pm on Saturday.
“They told us to go to Kabusa Village and pick any Okada rider (commercial motorcyclist) to a place where we did not know.
“My brother-in-law and I climbed the same bike to deliver the ransom.
“When we got to the thick forest where they were, they came out, collected the ransom.
“We gave them N2 million and N840, 000.
“It took about 40 minutes before my wife and daughters got to the point where we waited for them.
“So we begged the Okada rider to take my wife and daughters home, and to come back and pick us too,” he narrated.
On how his wife and daughters were faring, he said besides the injuries sustained, the psychological trauma was nothing to write home about
He said they were taken to a hospital for medicare.
Olasinde, who felt disheartening about the whole scenario, called on President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike, to come to their rescue.
According to him, this is not the first time kidnap case has been happening in our area.
Also speaking, the Chairman of Residents of Starwood Estate, Mr Kayode Adedoyin, enumerated several kidnap cases that had took place in the surroundings.
He called on the FCT minister to do all within his power to make their lives more secure
When NAN called the DPO of Galadimawa, Mr Cole, on phone about the incident, he said he had no permission to speak with the media. He directed the reporter to talk to the FCT Police PRO, Josephine Adeh.
And when Adeh was called on phone, she said she was unaware of the abduction.She, however, promised to get back to NAN as soon as she was briefed about the incident but she was yet to do that as at the time of filing the report.(NAN)