Corps member shares scary kidnap experience in Kogi

A rescued National Youth Service Corps member, David Ayodele, has shared how he and others were threatened with death by their kidnappers after being taken into a forest in Kogi State.

Ayodele said the kidnappers warned that they would keep the victims for one month and then kill them. They also told the victims not to move without permission.

He explained that the group was taken into the bush after their vehicle was stopped while traveling from Bayelsa State to Abuja. This trip was after their relocation from the NYSC orientation camp.

Recalling the incident after being rescued, Ayodele said the driver tried to escape when the kidnappers emerged. But the group was dragged out of the vehicle.

"The driver tried to escape, but he said, Who’s the driver? Who’s the driver? And I held the driver, then they opened the door, and they started leading us to the bush while they were shooting, you know, rounds of bullets in the air," he said.

He mentioned that the victims faced physical abuse as they were taken into the forest. "Then we made our way to the bush with flogging and kicking and shouting and stuff," he said.

Ayodele said the kidnappers later threatened to keep them in the forest for a month before killing them. "We reached one kind of bushy area; they asked us to sit down, they asked us who would drink water, that we would be here for one month, so they would kill all of us," he recounted.

He described the threats as very scary and said the victims were careful during their time in captivity. "They warned us that if anybody moved without permission that they will shoot the person, so none of us really attempted to move because of fear and stuff," he said.

Ayodele noted that they had to walk a long distance through the forest before they were eventually rescued. "So we moved a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot and then thank God the Nigerian Army came to meet us," he said.

He praised the security agencies that helped in the rescue, including the military, police, Department of State Services, and local hunters.

Ayodele revealed that he had finished his NYSC orientation at the Bayelsa camp and was on his way to Abuja after being relocated when this happened. "I did my orientation camp in Bayelsa camp," he said.

He explained that organized vehicles were taking corps members to different states when he joined a vehicle heading to Abuja. "So, on our way from Bayelsa, because we did relocation back to Abuja, so we were going to Abuja from Bayelsa camp. There were organized vehicles going to different states, so luckily we saw an Abuja vehicle," he said.

The corps member was among 15 NYSC members and six other Nigerians rescued from kidnappers’ den in Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State.