One of the students of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe, that regained their freedom at the weekend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has revealed what they passed through in the hands of their abductors.
The Senior Secondary School student said the kidnappers kept them under the rain in the camp. He also said they were only allowed to bath once or twice in a week and fed with poorly cooked food.
He said, “After they kidnapped us that day (May 25), we were kept around our school, while a (police) helicopter was patrolling the area. They asked us to hide in a bush so that people in the helicopter would not see us . In the midnight, they brought a boat to pick us.
“The following day, they gave us spaghetti. We ate the same thing in the afternoon and evening. They told us that some security men were sent to fight them, but they killed the men. They threatened that we would die there.
“We were seven in an uncompleted building. The seventh person was a man that was looking after us. It was a bad experience. We didn’t enjoy our sleep. “We always prayed that rain would not fall. If rain fell, it would beat us. Sometimes, they didn’t give us food; at times they gave us food once in a day. At other times , they wouldn’t give us food at all. We ate together. We bathed once or twice in a week.”
“After some time, I met with their boss called ‘Chief’ or ‘Chairman’ that we did not enjoy the food they cooked for us and that we should be allowed to prepare our food by ourselves. They didn’t allow us to move around.”
According to reports, claims by the Nigerian police that there were casualties during the rescue operation that culminated in the release of the six students have been dismissed by several sources, including one of the kidnapped students, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
But the student, who recounted their ordeal in the hands of the kidnappers said they were starved and at some points beaten out of frustration, because their parents could not pay up the ransom demanded, adding also that they were relocated to three different camps before their eventual release at the weekend.
It is against this backdrop that more details of the alleged involvement of the Ondo State Government in the negotiations that led to the release of the students have also been brought forward, even as some of the parents of the victims gave heart-rending accounts of how their wards survived the 65 days they spent in the three different camps they were taken by their captors.
The students were released around 3.30pm on Friday after 65 days in captivity and have been reunited with their parents. Findings revealed that the Ondo State Government actually negotiated the release of the students.