My name is Frank Okike, a law student and here is my story.

 

Previously before the incident, on the 16th day of January 2022 my parents and I were in the sitting room mapping out plans for my grand mother's burial which was slated to hold on the second and third day of February 2022 in Ebonyi State my Country home. Actually i was supposed to return to Enugu on the 18th for an important assignment, but my parents insisted that we should all leave together on the 26th day of January 2022, to which I obliged without a blink since it will save me some penny, and also Enugu is a sister state to Ebonyi.

 

Fast forward to the very day we left Osun for Ebonyi, remember I'll be dropping at Enugu, then thereafter my assignment, I'll join them in Ebonyi for my grandmother's burial. Hmmmmm..... the journey from Osun to Edo where the incident happened was smooth owing to the fact that we left in the evening. Travelling at night is so sweet!! In fact according to research, "night journey is the very best". but risky in a country like ours.

 

As we approached Benin City, Bypass to be exact, we saw some road blocks with a long lorry packed beside the road, actually I didn't know what was happening but I could hear the driver and my dad mutter words like "who could have mounted rods on a busy road like this". So the driver matched the break with full force trying to observe what was happening.  

 

Before we knew what was happening, we were surrounded by Fulani gunmen, deducing from their accents. I could see them struggling with the steering, some were struggling with my dad at the front sit, I was sitted very close to the back door, one of them struggled and broke in. My head was down facing the ground alongside everybody in the car. One of them flogged my dad and also collected the money on him. We were still lying on the road with our heads buried on the ground, they carried all our belongings including our phones, we were asked to follow them into the bush. We kept walking for close to 2hour. Finally we got to a place where we were asked to lie flat. The second day they called our relatives with the aid of our phones which was with them, demanding for ransom. I looked at my dad, mum, sister and the other young girls with us, my heart became heavy, I couldn't cry. 

 

I became terrified because we had young girls with us which these people might end up raping, but thank God they never touched them. As the days were going by, the kidnappers were still negotiating with our people on a particular amount. A day later, the ransom was dropped at the agreed place to which my dad was held on a life and death scalce i.e if the kidnappers discovers that my people were messing with them or they tried to involve the police, they'd kill my dad. But as fate would have it, the ransom was seen and we were released eventually. 

May God heal our land!

 

Frank C. Okike

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