During the celebrations included the
slaughtering of a cow at his home,Human
rights activist, Mike Ozekhome, who was
kidnapped for two weeks recounted his
ordeal
“My ordeal began on Friday August 23,
2013. I left Benin at 2pm for my home
town.“I ran into the kidnappers some
minutes past 3pm. It was my driver,
Chinedu, who noticed that a vehicle had
been used to block the road and he told
me that the people were armed robbers.
So, I told him to quickly turn, but
before he could turn, a gun was already
on my head. one of the men said if he
moved an inch they would kill me.
“So, I told my driver to stay put. They
dragged Chinedu and I out of the car,
shot the tyres of the vehicle and locked
him in the boot and made me lie flat
on the floor of their car. I heard them
say, Police! Police! Police! They also
added, ‘no retreat no surrender.’
“I heard a staccato of bullets; it was like
a war situation as they were firing
continuously. As they were firing, the
car was moving.
“I heard them say, ‘oh we have killed
some of them, but tomorrow, they
(police) will come out and lie that some
of us were injured but none of us has
been injured’.”
The victim said the kidnappers drove the
vehicle for about four hours before
dumping them at an uncompleted
building in the middle of nowhere.
Ozekhome said contrary to earlier
assumptions, the kidnappers did not
know who he was initially.
He said it was after he had been
abducted that the suspects started
asking him about personal information.
He said, “I was not targeted, meaning
that they merely operated randomly. It
is bad news because it could have been
any other person. It was while we were
in the car that they started asking
questions like what was my name and I
replied, ‘Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN.’
“They searched my pocket, took out the
complimentary cards and other things.
After checking one of the cards, one of
them said, ‘yes, that is what is written
on your card.’
“They asked how long I had been
practicing, I said 32 years. They said if I
told them a lie, they would know by the
following day from the press.”
Ozekhome said the kidnapper’s den was
run like a camp. He said the kidnappers
had a doctor and a cook, adding that
the place was heavily secured.
He recounted how the kidnappers
brought in their doctor to cure him of
Malaria and Typhoid when he took ill at
the uncompleted building
He said women and little children were
also victims.
“We were about 13 in the camp. One
woman and her two children were also
there too. I fell ill on two occasions and
they feared that I might die. The first
time they quickly called their doctor
who also wore veil like them and he gave
me some malaria drugs,” Ozekhome said.
The victim stated that in the process of
facilitating his release, the head of his
Abuja chamber, Dominic Ezerioha, and
his son were also abducted.
He said, ‘They said Ezerioha and my son
should come for me, but they were
abducted and brought to the camp. We
were all released about 7am yesterday
(Wednesday) in Benin.
“We were eating most of the time once
in a day. We ate Eba and Ogbono, we
also ate white rice and jollof rice.
“We were locked up in a room which
was very hot. The windows were only
opened on two occasions. A colony of
mosquitoes descended on us and feasted
on us like barbecue.”
The lawyer decried the state of insecurity in
the country, calling on the Federal
Government to offer amnesty to all
kidnappers and also declare a state of
emergency on security and youths
unemployment.He, however, declined to state
how much was paid as ransom.
By Punch
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