By Milcah Tanimu
Opeyemi Adewale, a lawyer based in Abuja, has opened up about the harrowing ordeal she endured after being abducted in the Federal Capital Territory on September 26, 2023.
Adewale revealed to PUNCH Metro that her release came at a steep price, with her husband and colleagues having to pay a ransom of one million naira before her captors set her free.
Her nightmare began when she unknowingly boarded a 14-seater bus from a park in Lugbe on that fateful evening, unaware that it was a “one-chance” bus. Within just six minutes into the journey, the man seated beside her launched an attack.
It was then that Adewale realized that she, along with two other women, were the only genuine passengers, while the rest of the occupants were part of the criminal gang.
She recounted, “They started assaulting me and the two other women in the vehicle. Afterward, they inquired about my occupation, and I falsely claimed to be a recently resigned teacher earning less than 30,000 naira. When they inquired about my husband, I described him as a struggling trader.”
The assailants searched her bag, discovered her ATM card, and demanded her PIN. They subsequently emptied her bank account, took all the cash she had, and instructed her to contact her family. They informed her that they were taking them to Kaduna, where an individual named Alhaji planned to use them for a ritual. However, if they could raise a ransom of one million naira, they would be released.
While she was attempting to contact her family for the ransom, the kidnappers kept driving around the city. It was only around midnight that her husband and colleagues managed to raise the funds, which were sent to the abductors. The money was deposited into her account, and the kidnappers withdrew it from a point-of-sale (POS) operator.
The FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Josephine Adeh, stated that efforts were underway to combat the activities of kidnappers and “one-chance” operators in the capital city but could not reveal details of the operation to avoid jeopardizing their efforts.
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