THE BEGINNING!!!
We only had a morning flight to catch in enugu on Monday morning 9th August 2021 and considering that there was an IPOB sit at home order we knew that leaving Anambra on Monday morning May not work so we decided to go to enugu on Sunday against Monday.
Enroute Enugu via old road seeing the huge traffic on that wonderland road and on the express too, we decided to follow inside unizik School, burst out at Ifite, drive through amansea to Express before joining the old road again.
I was driving while MC Two Mic and Mc Apostle were with me.
After successfully cutting off the hold up and coming back on the express we just needed to drive a few kilometers before we join the old road and keep heading to enugu.
Then getting to a Bad spot on the road and trying to navigate it, my car got stuck!!!
THE ATTACK
Two Seconds everywhere burst!!!
First I heard gunshots and in split seconds I saw a man with his face covered wielding an AK47 gun. First he shot at my head lamps in a bid to switch them off! Then shot at my car few times. He moved to the Bus beside mine and shot at it a few times too, the occupants of the Buses behind and beside me speedy abandoned their buses and ran for dear life.
I made to run but my seatbelt pulled me back and before I could remove the seatbelt to run the man was already beside my door then I heard his first words “ip you mobe, I paya”.
He pulled me out of the car, and then I saw two more men with machetes. They dragged me to the bush and asked me if I had money. I answered in the affirmative, I told them I had over 200k in my car and told them where the money was, I turned back to see another two guys dragging Mc two mic and MC apostle into the busy too, the guys with me left and went back to my car to get the money, they came back and asked for my phones and I told them I left it in my car, they went back to my car and brought my two phones.
Then they asked us to lie down and facedown… I wanted to raise my neck to plead when one of them raised his machete and it landed on my back, it wasn’t a cut!!! It was a slap!
A very painful Machete slap!
Then I saw one of them coming with a woman!
Apparently she was in one of the buses behind my car but couldn’t run cos she was fat, so they captured her… but their leader said she was going to slow them down so they took everything that was on her and released her…
Actually, their leader released her but the smallest of them (A little boy barely 14years old) said they should kill the woman. The leader refused so they slapped her with the matchete and asked her to run out of the bush.
THE JOURNEY
They took us and started journeying into the forest… over one hour walking into the night, passing through swampy waters and rice farms, all on bare feet.
We didn’t have any Footwears on, we probably lost it while they were pulling and pushing us!
As we were walking, the kept saying “Ip you have moni we leab you, ip you no geti moni we waste you”. I started praying… first I was asking God to accept my soul and forgive me, then Holyspirit called me back to order, the voice said “Neche why are you accepting death so easily”. I quickly changed my prayer point and started asking God to deliver us, I reminded him all his promises on my life. I just kept praying as we walked. The most consistent words out of my mouth was “Lord, for the sake of your mercy, save us. For the sake of everyone whose destiny and survival depends on me, Save me. For the sake my Father, your servant Save me”… I just kept repeating these words.
We talked and walked, through the forest, sharp grasses cutting our legs, and thorns piercing our feet.
We got to a point where we saw a very big log of wood and they asked us to sit on the wood then they started questioning us!
What we did for a living and where we were going, they told us that killing us was the plan but that 20million will give us back our lives…
Where I wan see 20million to give kidnapers? Have I even seen this kind money in my full life?
We started pleading for our lives… begging these guys to spare us!
THE SCARIEST PART
They asked us where we were from and we said “Awka”… immediately we mentioned Awka the leader shouted “cheneke!!!” In the deepest Hausa accent ever…
Then he said that Awka people has killed 19 of their people before and they are no longer interested in our ransom… the leader told us he’ll kill three of us now and Awka people will owe them 16 more deaths. And if you know anything about these Fulani herdsmen, they are largely driven by revenge.
Ahhhhhhh!!!!!
My God!!!!
The leader asked one of the boys to blindfold us, they asked us if we had any messages for our families… we couldn’t answer! We just kept crying!
The leader asked us to stand up, cross the log of wood we were sitting on and turn around.
We did that…
Then he repeated those words again, “Awka people killed 19 of us including women and children? What did those children and woman do to your people? Now we will kill 3 of their own”.
He corked his gun and instructed us to run….
Run to where?
With our eyes tied?
Facing the forest?
Where could we have ran to?
We just kept crying and begging and after a while they asked us to sit down. Then the leader told us that it would take 20million to leave that forest with our lives.
Then they asked us to continue walking, and after about another 30mins we settled at a place and and then they brought out my phones and asked us to start calling people… by now it was almost 10:30pm
A CRY FOR HELP!
First person we called was Barrister AKA, we were on our way to Lagos with him. So we informed him of the Development, I can’t remember all the other calls in details but it was crazy. Calls upon calls we’re going out.
Few minutes later a call came from KayKay Campus Amebo, he was laughing over the phone and was asking me what kinda prank I was up too, how could He be hearing that I was kidnapped while I was at Reboot lounge and he could hear my name. Abi was I not supposed to have a show at Reboot lounge?True to his words, I heard the Mc at Reboot lounge in the background of the call say “Ladies and Gentlemen Prince Neche is the Building!!!” Followed by the crowd shouting. Omo it was funny but I no fit laugh. I told Kaykay I was sitting in a forest and he started laughing, I ended the call.
Another call came from Modest of Desty Shawama and exchange. I told him same thing and he asked me who kidnapped us, I told him Fulani Herdsmen, immediately the kidnappers heard that, one of them angrily matched my head with his leg and asked me why I would mention that they were Fulani? I start to cry again o. Modest asked to speak with them and I gave the phone to the leader but he refused, one of the others took the phone and modest tried to talk to them in Hausa, I don’t know what he said that triggered them but they shouted at him and asked him to speak English and stop acting like they were brothers because they are not.
The guy angrily ended the call and asked me to call someone to go and take my car away from the express or else they will go back and set it on fire. So I called Barrister AKA again and he said he’s Security was already on his way there. E no tey, I got another call that my car was no longer there. The security guy didn’t meet it there when he got there. Ahh Ahhhh another wahala. But then finding my car was the least of my problem. Na who Dey alive Dey drive motor.
The kidnappers then asked me to put off the phone and sleep.
But how I wan take sleep kwanu?
Mosquitos were dealing with us, and soon enough it started raining, the Kidnapers brought out umbrellas and culled themselves under it but the rain was beating us.
Soon enough the rain reduced and I found somewhere to keep my head and sleep.
The longest night of my entire life. I really wished I would wake up and all these would be a dream.
HORROR CONTINUES!!
As early as 5am in the morning, these guys woke us up and started moving us into a thicker part of the forest, this part of the forest was so thick that no matter how bright the day was, this place was thick darkness. We walked for Like 20mins deeper into the forest and as we walked, the used their cutlass to clear to thick forest for us to be able to walk in.
Thorns Pierced our legs and cut our cloths. We were already weak and tired from walking but they made us continue.
I think at this point MC Apostle Already had his leg swollen from the thorns that pierced his feet.
We got to a part of the forest and the asked us to stop, they cut leaves from trees and laid on the floor and asked us to lay down on it and face down… my next thought was that these guys were going to butcher us into small pieces and sell us to people who buy human parts… I asked them to give us the phones so we can turn it on and continue making calls, they refused and asked us to lie down and face down… Omo!! My mind fly.
We lay down and faced down and them too took their positions around us and stayed quiet. And it wasn’t long before it started raining again. And it rained that entire Monday, and every rain that fell that day beat the three of us. We were cold and shivering in our extremely wet cloths.
Truth is, nothing I would ever write here would describe actually how it was for us.
We weren’t sure if we would die or not.
Later in the day, they brought the phones and gave us and asked us to call our people again to find out if they had gotten the money.
We started calling again, we were talking to too many people to too many people… ParrotMouth, JessiDidi, Emerald, Cadlands, OJC… etc. Too many people. And the we’re giving us different informations. Some would say the have gathered 1 million, some said 700k, some said 1.5 million, some said they hadn’t seen shishi.
Omo!!! We no know wetin to believe. So I asked one of the kidnappers to talk to someone on the phone and the person told them they had gathered 700k.
Jehova!!!!
700k out of 20million
It’s over.
Nothing is bringing us out of here.
The kidnappers got very angry and switched the phone off.
MY FEARS
One of the things I was very worried about was my parents… if they found out that their first son was in danger, heart attack could kill them, so I told Emerald to make sure my mum never found out.
Unknown to me, someone had already sent my mum pictures and Facebook post that I was kidnapped… my mum kept calling Emerald to find out if it’s true and Emerald kept lying to my mum that nothing was wrong but my mum couldn’t reach me on phone and many people was sending her pictures and news so she was very troubled.
At some point Emerald had to tell her the truth and calmed her down and promised her that I’ll be fine.
On one of the occasions where my phone was on while trying to make calls in the forest, my mum called. I picked and the moment she heard my voice she burst into tears… I couldn’t hold myself so I started crying too. In the midst of her tears, she kept praying for me and reminding me of all of Gods promises. She assured me that I’ll be fine and that I was gonna come home. She said the entire church had gathered and was praying for us.
Another of my Fear was that people outside would involve police and start tracking our location to rescue us and that could trigger these guys to shot us and flee.
I kept praying that nothing like that would happen.
We sat quietly in that forest under the rain and was begging these guys that we can’t raise 20million even in 20 years.
We told them we were students and it was our classmates that was contributing money.
From 20million we bargained to 15milion to 10million, to 8million to 6million.
Calls upon calls upon calls.
We were scared.
INSIDE INFORMATION.
As we were begging the kidnappers to consider us, we got talking. They started telling us how they operate, Their camp, how they get guns, who sends them and a lot more.
They told us that their camp was somewhere in Kogi and that if we didn’t bring ransom by the next day, they would take us to kogi and the journey would have to be made on foot and we would travel through the forest and only at nights. The journey was going to take us 3days.
They also said that once we get to kogi they would hands off and hand us over to their oga who would continue the negotiations with our families individually and the Ransom was going to become higher. And that once we get to their camp, we would only get phones to make calls once a week and we would eat once in 3 days and it would be only garri and water.
He said their oga does not care how long you stay in the camp as hostage cos the more you stay the more your ransom. They said one hostage had stayed 1 month in their camp… he was the old hostage they had.
Their leader told us that their Oga comes to their camps and gives them guns and magazines and sends them out to go and kidnap people and that they must return with money equivalent to the weapons their were given.
These informations made more fear grip us. All we wanted was to leave this bush. I told MC Apostle and MC 2Mic that we needed to pray. We held our hands together and started praying. We promised God that we would testify of his saving power to the world if he saves us from this situation.
After the prayers, we asked them for the phones to continue the calls, and this time we were more desperate. Mc Apostle asked them to sale his car, 2Mic asked them to sell his fish pond and everything… me? Wetin I get wey I wan sell kwanu? I sha asked for my landed properties to be sold…. All in the quest to raise the money so we won’t spend another day in that forest.
After the calls, I asked the kidnappers to guarantee us that if we bring the money they will leave us, and that they won’t harm us and that they won’t also take the person who comes to deliver the ransom Hostage too. They made us those promises, but then, how do you believe the promise of people who kidnapped you under gun point and held you hostage? How do you believe the promise of people who all they do is take Mkpuru Mmiri (crystal meth) and smoke weed all day long?
We were basically just doing our best to stay alive.
JOKES FROM THE FOREST
Comedians will be comedians… we made jokes.
First was how we will all marry and start families once we regain freedom because this life no sure for anybody.
It’s been one year now, non of us done marry.
I remember when 2mic said we should attack the kidnappers.
Normally, if it was a hand to hand fight, none of those guys would be able to stand any of us. They looked lanky and sickly, so a fist fight would have us battering them very badly, but then they had a gun, three machetes and unknown number of daggers.
2mic said we should attack their leader because he was the one with the gun and if we can disarm him, we can disarm the other people.
Then he said “They have gun and we have God, one with God is Majority” and almost immediately Mc Apostle replied “Bro Calm down… one with God is Majority but One with Gun can kill Majority”.
Aswear, we were in bondage but we laughed a bit loudly.
It was crazy.
Then we slept again… for everytime we sleep, myself and Mc Apostle will be snoring and Mc 2mic will be left sitting between both of us and conducting our snore like a choir master would conduct a choir.
That Monday was the longest Monday in the history of Mondays.
The rain never really stopped falling and as much as we never stopped shivering from cold, we also never stopped believing God.
FRIENDS WITH OUR OPPRESSORS
I’m sure you have heard about the passage of the Bible where Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den and lions became his friends… we saw it first hand.
When it got darker, these kidnappers asked us to move, and they brought us out of the forest to another part of the bush where we could see the skies.
The leader asked one of them to go out of the bush and into neighboring villages to buy food.
The other kidnappers picked wet woods and branches and somehow started a fire for us to keep us warm. That fire was the reason cold didn’t kill us there. We start round the fire and listened to their stories while sympathizing with them and telling them how good they have been to us. After like 4 hours, the one that went to buy food returned. They gave us bread and Pepsi, Mc Apostle was in so much pains that he couldn’t eat. I tried to eat but zero appetite, but that wasn’t same for Mc 2mic.
He ate 3 breads and drank 3 Pepsi.
One of the kidnappers went to nearby farms and came back with corns from peoples farms and roasted them and gave to us to eat. I managed to eat the corn and drank rain water.
Then we took our positions on the flooded floor beside the fire and slept for the night.
FINAL DAY!
In the morning of Tuesday, as early as 5am they woke us up and started taking us inside another part of the forest,
We sat there and it wasn’t long before the rain started again.
The rain was the least of our worries… we needed to leave that place by all means. Mc Apostle was in excruciating pain already cos his legs had swollen tremendously and the thoughts of traveling from there to Kogi through the forest was killing everyone of us… personally I thought the worst. What if Apostle isn’t as fast as they want, they might shoot him so he won’t delay others…. God Abeg o!!!
We started making the calls as early as possible and promising the people outside that we would refund every single dime they raise for us only if we can just come out alive.
And in the forest we kept begging these guys to accept whatever our people had gathered.
At this point, my iPhone had gone off, and the battery of my android phone was on the brink of going off and if that happens there won’t be anymore form of communication.
We might just be stuck here.
We just kept begging.
At around 1pm, I donno what happened but their leader just suddenly stood up and asked how much we had raised, I could not give an authentic answer, we needed to call outside and my Android phone too had gone off, one of the kidnappers brought out a rickety China phone and I inserted my sim card and continued to communicate with people outside they mentioned that they had gotten a substantial amount, it wasn’t even up to the 6million they kidnappers asked, e no even near am at all. The gang leader asked them to ready it in cash and he would call them back in 2 hours to give them other instructions.
Immediately, I knew God was at work. We just needed to keep trusting and believing him.
2 hours later, he called our people outside and told them to bring the money somewhere. He asked them to come with police and army and if they like they should come with helicopters but they should know that whatever happens he’ll collect that money and they would never see us again. Our people promised not to come with any form of force personnel… they just wanted us out in peace.
The leader asked them to wait for further instructions.
He then told us that our lives where now in the hands of our friends as their actions will determine if we live or die.
He took one of his boys and made their way out of the forest, now leaving us with just two others.
WHO WILL BELL THE CAT?
Outside, our friends had gotten money they raised ready in cash, they had counted and confirmed, they already had a delivery location from the kidnappers, a car was even available already, but there was only one problem. WHO WILL TAKE THE MONEY TO THE KIDNAPPERS?
This was really a valid fear because nothing sure for the movement.
How are sure that you yourself won’t be taken hostage?
How are you sure you’ll come back alive?
To do this you really have to be brave!!!
Somehow Joseph Okafor, the former SUG president of unizik decided to undertake the Journey, he took the money and put in a shuttle car, took the phone to communicate with the kidnappers and then Mc Apostle’s Elder Brother joined him in the Car and they set off.
MIRACLE OF FREEDOM
From the moment the Gang leader left the forest, all we were doing was praying. This was the most important part of our freedom. Nothing had to go wrong or that would be the end of us. We sat quietly with the other two and was waiting patiently.
2 hours later, the gang leader was not back neither was their any word from him. Soon 2hours became 3 hours and gradually we were becoming worried and the gang members were becoming impatient too.
Suddenly they asked us to stand up and follow them. One walked in front and one walked behind us, we were in between them and very weak from the past 2days. Gradually they were leading us to another part of the forest when suddenly we heard sounds, it was the kinda sounds that they made to call each other. They returned the sounds and it wasn’t long before we saw the gang leader and the one who had gone with him approaching. They were carrying the nylon containing the money and their gun.
They told us we were free to leave and gave us 6000 from the ransom to use for transport when we get to the main road.
We didn’t know our way around the forest and All they did was point towards a direction and ask us to keep going straight.
We left with the speed a cheetah and was walking as fast as our legs and strength could Carry us, I had forgotten my phones with them… it didn’t matter to me. After some minutes we saw one of them running after us and asking us to stop and come and collect my phones, I went back and collected the phones and rejoined my friends. We had to pick sticks to support our walking while holding Mc Apostles Hands cos his legs had become terrible.
After walking for while we noticed a woman who was in her farm and we started shouting to her for help, we spoke igbo and told her our stories and what had happened to us… she testified to seeing two Fulani people when they were going out with a gun and she told us that she was with a fellow villager and she had called the attention of that her fellow villager who was a hunter and that he had gone back into the village to call other hunters… she was still explaining this to us when we saw the man and some other people coming… we told them our story and they admitted that they heard about the kidnap on Sunday night but never knew the kidnappers were in neighboring forests.
They took us through a bush part to their village where one of the villagers gave us water and someone borrowed us a phone, I inserted my sim card and called Joseph incoming him we were safely out of the forest. The villagers help us direct him where to come and meet us, and then the villagers help us walk to the main road where we United with Joseph and Mc Apostles Brother and headed back to awka.
All through our ride back home, I was just thinking… “What if these villagers had confronted these kidnapers on their way out or in?”
What if these kidnappers had seen anything that had made them feel threatened while on course to collect this ransom?
That this point, I knew that this freedom was a miracle.
TRAUMA
Arriving Awka, we were taken straight to xfit where everyone had gathered and was waiting for us to return. And on getting there we saw the whole town… friends, fans, loved ones, family… everyone was excited that we were back.
We were happy to be free at last… I saw love, I saw people who cared, I saw people who our absence made restless. I was sad that it was on my account that those people had to go through this kind of trauma.
From xfit, we were taken to a hotel. I for one couldn’t go home because I didn’t have the keys to my house. It was in my car. A car that I didn’t know where it was at the moment. So a hotel was our best bet.
At the hotel, first thing was to get out of the cloths I had worn for the past 3 days in rain and sun and have a very long hot bath.
No matter how hard I scrubbed, I still felt like dirt. I even had no cloths to change into, Inektor had to give me a jersey and Jean to wear.
I stayed in Mc Apostle’s Room talking with Cadlands and Joseph and Benedict and all the other friends that had come to see us. We just talked till they all left.
It was after they left and I went back to my room that it hit me, I was alone!!! Mc Apostle had his brothers and girl friend around him. Mc 2mic had his Brothers around and his mum too.
I was alone.
No friends, No partner, Nothing!!! And once again I became afraid. The room no longer felt safe. I had to call Emerald and beg her to come and stay with me for the night. I asked her to buy me another change of cloth, food and toothpaste and brush, and while I was waiting for her to arrive I quickly put on my phone and went straight to social media. I just had to distract myself from the thoughts and fears I was feeling.
I just kept making Facebook posts after Facebook post, was posting WhatsApp status after WhatsApp status… I really wasn’t replying any chats. I just wanted distraction, at least till Emy arrives. My phone kept ringing but I wasn’t even in the right frame of mind for conversations. So I ignored a lot of the calls till
finally Emy arrived and I put my phone off.
That night, I couldn’t sleep.
And when I finally did close my eyes, it was nightmare after Nightmare
One of the Nightmare had me crying from my sleep to reality. As a matter of fact, my crying in the dream woke Emy and she had to wake me. I still remember vividly that dream and how scared it left me.
That night was the first of many nights that I couldn’t sleep. I always needed someone sleeping next to me to be able to sleep and even with that I would jerk up multiple times before day break.
I was battling this for months. I was Traumatized beyond words, and in one of those night I wrote a poem I titled “PTSD”
41 days later
Sleep is still luxury
So I write this letter
Tales of my mystery
When night comes I’m scared
When I lay down on my bed
It’s almost impossible to Rest
Cos I get flashes from the forest
The scenes are still in my head.
They Plague me in my sleep
There’s no more tears to shed
Cos while other sleep, I weep
But then again I remember
A living dog is better than a dead lion
So from January to December
I’m grateful to the Rock of Zion
I LOST NOTHING
Finding my car was another issue… luckily a friend had tracked my car and told me it was at Oji River Police station. Apparently a group of Army men on patrol the night we were kidnapped came upon an abandoned car, they didn’t know what the incident was, whether is was robbery, kidnap or even a faulty car, so they just towed the car to their check point, then called Oji River police to come and get it.
So all I had to do was go there and calm it… or so I thought.
When I found my car, it was in a terrible shape, the bullet had recked havoc inside the bonnet of the car. But I was glad I found it, at least I would get the keys to my house and go home. It was already 3 days since our release and I hadn’t entered my house.
We spoke to the policemen and the DPO and made the necessary payments we were asked to pay to get the car, then hired a towing van to tow it back to my Mechanic in Awka because it couldn’t be driven.
I couldn’t process the idea of paying money up and down in the police station to get my car back but then, I counted it all joy.
The most important thing was that I was alive and well… so I lost nothing.
LAST LAST
It’s been 1 year since this terrible experience and I’m still yet to totally get over it… The fact that I’m even still here.
The fact that Nigeria Happened to me.
The fact that I could have been gone and forgotten.
I don’t even know how I feel right now.
It’s a surge of emotions right now.
I cannot thank God enough.
For a second chance at life.
Right now I feel like I have 2 birthdays.
6th of March and 8th of August.
Ladies and Gentlemen…. Happy Birthday to me!
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