Human rights activist, Mike Ozekhome, who was kidnapped for two weeks, returned home on Thursday to a rousing welcome.
A cow was slaughtered to entertain people who had come to make sure that he was indeed save and sound.
The lawyer, who was kidnapped between
Ehor and Ekpoma Road in Edo State and released on Wednesday, narrated
his ordeal to well wishers at his home on Mike Ozekhome Lane, Igando,
Lagos State.
While addressing the crowd in company
with his wife, Josephine and son, Ilugbekai, the Senior Advocate of
Nigeria called for a four-minute silence for the four policemen from the
Ehor Police Division, who were killed while attempting to rescue him.
He said, “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 lied 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.
PUNCH
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