A Lagos-based master’s degree student, Feyi Orisan, was kidnapped alongside a woman in Ekiti by gunmen who shot her father, Sesan Orisan, dead in her presence. She recounts how the kidnappers threatened to kill them and sell their body parts if their ransom was delayed
How did the attack leading to the killing of your dad and your abduction happen?
We had come for my grandma’s burial. My dad and mum had been in Ekiti State since August 4, but I came on August 6, which was the day of the burial. After the ceremony, we returned to the hotel. We had not got far from the venue of the burial when we heard a gunshot. When we heard it, we thought it was from the car tyre, so we stopped a bit to check if it was the tyre.
Looking back, we saw a guy dressed in black with a long double-barrelled gun like a military weapon. So, when we tried to move forward, we saw that three armed guys had emerged from the bush. Everything happened within 15 seconds, we tried to see if we could escape. As we were trying to move, another gunshot was fired—they shot my dad. With that, he could no longer handle the car, which ran into a pothole and stopped; we could have had an accident. So, we tried to come down, crawling into the bush which was close to the car.
How many of you were in the car?
There were four of us. My dad was in the driver’s seat, the other woman was by his side, and my dad’s sister and I were in the back seat. She was on the left-hand side, while I was on the right. Two of us were taken away because my dad had been shot; the other woman was able to escape. When we came down and were crawling, the guys had already moved to the bush to wait for us.
They told us to stand up. They didn’t lead us into the bush right beside the car, instead, they made us walk for about five minutes before we entered into the bush still on the same side. We pleaded with them to please help us so that my dad could be rushed to the hospital, but they went back to the car and told us that he was dead and that we should start preparing for his burial. They brought his phone with them. So, they made us keep going. We walked for six to seven hours that day before we got to a place, like a rock. The first place we slept was on a rock. They had their cooking utensils there, so they made food and ate.
What did they tell you?
That day, they told us that they had information that my dad was a wealthy person and that they needed a ransom. They said he was the target and that they had waited there for him, but that he was being stubborn, that was why they killed him. They said if he had been alive, they would have kidnapped me alongside him and set others free. They said the first gunshot was not aimed at the car tyre, but just to alert others that the man was almost there, so that they could come out.
They told us they would need a ransom of N100m and that we should start calling those we felt could be of assistance. They used my dad’s phone that they brought from the car all through; they told us to look for numbers of those we could beg for ransom and that, if we didn’t, they would just cut our heads and other body parts for sale to replace the ransom. The leader of the gunmen said it was Yoruba and Igbo people that bought body parts. He did not have a Yoruba accent, although he was speaking Yoruba fluently. Then somebody called and he said we should talk to his boss. The person that spoke with us over the phone was a Yoruba person. The person on the phone said what had just happened to us was a kidnapping and that our people should look for the money, failure or delay of which would result in them killing us.
To what tribe did the gunmen belong?
Obviously not Yoruba; they are not Igbo either. They were communicating among themselves mostly in Hausa/Fulfulde languages. Most times, they spoke Hausa, then switched to Fulfulde. They were trying to find out whether any of us understood their language of communication.
What was the situation like with the kidnappers?
We slept at night, and usually, when it was dark, they would remove our blindfolds. On the first day, they cut our clothes with machetes to blindfold us. The following morning, they woke us up; sometimes, we would start to walk around 2am or 3am and we would walk till about 5am or 5:30 am. While walking, they would tell us to be careful because of the farmers. They said if the farmers saw us, we would have a problem and they (kidnappers) would have to kill us. They instructed us to stay on one track so that there would be no traceable footsteps. My feeling was that there was water in the area where we were because I continued to hear the sound of water rushing. It’s like we were going round and round. Most times, we were sleeping on the rock. When it was morning, they would take us out of there and blindfold us until it was dark again, when they would remove it, so that we would start walking again.
What about feeding?
They didn’t give us food. They were the ones eating, not us.
How did you survive from Friday till Tuesday?
There was a point when I was really tired and I saw a dirty pond, I had to drink out of it because they (gunmen) did not care whether we were weak or not, they only wanted us to keep walking.
How many people did you meet at the kidnappers’ den?
We were the only ones initially, it was later that they brought other people. The following day, they brought more people. They brought in six others.
How did you feel when you heard the initial gunshots?
I was devastated, I was scared, and I was really tense because that was the least I was expecting at that time.
When you left Lagos for Ekiti, did you envisage a disaster like this?
Never! Because I always thought Ekiti was a peaceful state. It’s my mum’s place, so I thought Ekiti was somewhere I could come and feel safe. I never thought this could happen.
How do you feel losing your dad in a circumstance like that?
I feel very bad, I feel empty. I feel like they have taken the best part of me because I saw him get shot, I saw him go down and I could not do anything. At the time we got out, I had just been praying, “Let somebody see him.” People were passing, but it was getting to a point where everybody was scared for their life. Nobody wanted to help and they were moving. They were scared. If only somebody had come down to save him! And they did not allow us to save him, probably give him first aid or something.
Were you tortured?
They tortured everybody. Emotional torture and all sorts of torture. We slept in the rain, I still feel the cold of that night. It rained from 7pm that night until the following morning, the kidnappers left us in the cold. We slept on the rock. They tortured us with machetes and sticks. They used machetes to hit our heads or backs when they wanted our attention.
How many kidnappers were there?
There must have been four or five of them. Those were the ones I saw. They were very young guys. They were all armed with AK-47s and they said, “At least, you can see that these are military guns, they are expensive guns. How do you think we can afford all these bullets and all of that?”
How do you feel about the whole situation?
I feel our country or Ekiti has really got to a point where everybody is unsafe, I would not expect this to happen in Lagos in broad daylight. We are at a stage where everybody is unsafe. You can’t go out in the morning and be sure of returning to your house, there are unforeseen circumstances everywhere. They are just killing people and picking people. There is insecurity everywhere! What I noticed was that we were walking all over the bush, I feel there should have been some form of synergy between Ekiti and neighbouring Kwara State as regards monitoring the expanse of unused land. From what I saw, if they kill people there, there is no way anybody can hear the gunshots because the place is so vast. I think security should be doubled.
What is on your mind now?
As it is, they have killed my dad. I am unemployed and I do not have a job. I am my mum’s firstborn, I don’t even know where we will start from.
What is it like being able to breath the air of freedom now?
Sometimes, it feels like a dream. Honestly, I thought they were going to kill us because even at the point when they told us to leave, it was like they changed their minds. At some point, they told us to turn around; they lined us up and they had their guns cocked. I was still thinking it was a dream and that they might still kill us. I did not believe I was out of their den until I woke up the following day.
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