Posted by By Tser Vanger on
Kidnappers who specialize in taking females as hostages have invaded Makurdi, the Benue State capital where they strike mostly at nights in the streets of the town.
MAKURDI - Kidnappers who specialize in taking females as hostages have invaded Makurdi, the Benue State capital where they strike mostly at nights in the streets of the town. One of the victims of the kidnappers who regained freedom after four days of captivity told Saturday Vanguard recently that she was approached by two young men at about 8:30 pm on Onitsha street in the Wurukum area of the town shortly after she had come out of a hair saloon.
The lady who spoke on condition of anonymity disclosed that the young men who were in a red Japanese car, with all doors wide open, flashed a piece of paper before her pretending to be looking for an address written on it. She said as soon as they engaged her in a conversation, she lost her sense of reasoning and voluntarily entered the car at the back seat where two other young men in masks were seated. The victim narrated further that she could only remember the men asking for her handset which she surrounded to them adding that she regained consciousness only at the point of disembarkment at an isolated area.
'When I asked them where we were, one of them slapped me across the mouth and asked me to shut up, then marched me on into an uncompleted building," she stated. The young lady who is a pay phone operator at the Wurukum area of the town further said: 'Inside the building, there were two other girls with their hands bound behind their backs while two other gunmen watched them". She recalled that her handset was used by the kidnappers to call her brother to make a demand for ransom, adding that the men also made efforts to call a relation of one of the other victims but were not successful.
According to her, they eventually got through to the family of the 3rd victim and asked for a N20,000 ransom which they demanded must be paid in recharge cards sent to them through SMS (Shortage message service) on her handset which they were using. She said all of them, female victims were finally freed after four days of incarceration in the building, two hours after their captors had bolted away. Following the sound of passing vehicles we got to the main road in a confused state.
On enquiry from one of the commercial bus drivers, they discovered they were somewhere near Akwanga in Nassarawa State.
Another resident of Makurdi, who lives near the modern market also told Saturday Vanguard that her niece was kidnapped recently to escort a friend who had visited her. According to him, the lady''s disappearance from the compound had caused anxiety among family members until she returned two days after to inform how she was swooped on by some men shortly after her friend had climbed a commercial motorcycle near the catholic church, Our Lady of Perpetual Health Cathedral, Ankpa quarters. Benue State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, said non of the cases had been reported to the command.