A kidnap victim, Nneka Leonard who was fortunate to be released alive while others were killed, has narrated the horrific ordeal while in the kidnapper’s den.
Leonard said she lost a friend and was travelling from Lagos to Port Harcourt for the memorial when she was kidnapped on Saturday, May 15.
She said she boarded a bus from Maza Maza in Lagos to Onitsha. On getting to Onitsha, she took a bus to Owerri and in Owerri, she boarded a bus going to Port Harcourt, not knowing that the male passengers were kidnappers.
The lady said they were five ladies and three guys on the bus from Owerri to Port Harcourt.
In the course of the journey, one of the guys brought out a handkerchief, she felt a hand on her nose and dozed off. On waking up, she saw that her hands and legs were tied in a strange location and she started shouting.
She said she was asked to stop screaming but when she refused, she was beaten up by six hefty men and was stripped naked by their boss who searched her bag and took everything.
Leonard was told that the only thing that would save her is if she calls her people. She said a photo of her was taken and she was told to put in her fingerprint so they could open her phone.
When they noticed she didn’t have data on her phone, the boss asked them to use her phone to buy as much data online as they wanted.
When they finally recharged and subscribed with her phone, they sent her photos to her relatives, called them, and demanded a ransom.
She explained that the kidnappers told her one day after her kidnap, on Sunday, that her relatives were making efforts to pay the ransom.
They then informed another kidnap victim that her family members were not making any move, and there and then, they made a call to an “Alhaji”, to know if he’s interested in buying the woman’s body parts.
Narrating the call, Nneka Leonard said: “They said, ‘Ah, Alhaji, fresh meat dey oh. How we go take do am? Which part you need?’ The Alhaji say ‘breast, I need her second to the last finger, I need her eye, I need her ear’.
“So he said, ‘OK, how much are you looking at?’ and he said, ‘Ah, Alhaji, if you can give us 4 million, we’ll kill it now now now and send it to you’.
“The Alhaji started pricing. He said ‘let me give you people 3 million, it’s OK’. They said ‘done’ then cut the phone.
“They carried the girl immediately.
“They had a very, large, big table, but it’s an iron table. So, they took the girl.”
She said the girl started begging, telling them that she has no one and is an orphan and an only child.
Nneka continued: “They said ‘who only child help?’ Immediately, they cut her head, started butchering her body parts, in my presence.
“So, after some hours, they came back again, they took the other girl, they cut her, they called and found out the part they needed again. That one said ‘her private part, breast and eye’, that is the only thing he needed that night.
“They had to carry the second girl again to kill in my presence.”
She said only three out of the five of them kidnapped from the bus were left at this point.
Nneka said on Monday morning, they took the third girl because the buyer wanted just her head, so they decapitated her, leaving two of the women.
Later on at about past 11 AM that Monday, Nneka explained that the kidnappers arrived and told her she’s lucky because her people have paid and they will be releasing her. They also told the other woman that she will be released too as her people have paid and the kidnappers told both of them to go for thanksgiving when they regain their freedom because they are fortunate to have people willing to pay for them.
Nneka said that if she had stayed a day earlier, she would have died because they were there without food nor water and she was left naked for the period she was in captivity.
She was put on a bike later that day, late at night, and was dumped in the middle of a dangerous road.
Watch video of Nneka narrating the ordeal below:
