•I ate, slept, defecated on same spot for days, says lawyer seized by gunmen in police uniform
By Lawrence Enyoghasu
A lawyer, Mr. Chidi Nwuke, recently experienced hell in the den of kidnappers but miraculously survived his numerous ordeals. And now, he stoically sees himself as a hard-boiled survivor.
He was recently seized from his village, Umoma, in Orlu, Imo State, where he was attending a burial.
Nwuke said that he was whisked away in a commando-style raid while he was at a burial. He was hurled into his Lexus car – which he is yet to recover – alongside his driver by some gunmen dressed in police fatigue. He said that the sleek jacket he was wearing on the occasion was used to blindfold him, thus rendering him and his driver helpless. According to him, the scanty crowd that witnessed the high drama merely watched in awe. The people could not help one of their own as the daredevils drove off with their victims.
Nwuke told Daily Sun that November 10, 2017, would forever remain dreadful in his memory; for that was a day he faced death but survived.
He recalled that: “The day, for me, started like every other day. I had a case at the high court of Abuja that very day and a funeral ceremony to attend back at home in Umuowa town.
“I arrived home at 7:30pm that evening. When I arrived at the funeral event, proceedings were almost over. I had barely settled down before a bunch of young men in police uniform stormed the arena. In the twinkle of an eye, I became a kidnap victim.
“Two of the three men alighted from their car and started shooting sporadically. Instantly, they surrounded me; when it seemed like everybody had fled, they ordered me inside my car.
“While in the car, I was blindfolded with my jacket. They also hurled in my driver. When we got to Orlu-Owerri Road, they picked up one of their friends. As we went on, we got to a spot where I was hearing children crying and a family chattering. They had stopped to have a chat with someone; they kept whispering to one another. Then they drove off again, on and on until we arrived at a building that was to be my abode for more than a week.”
Nwuke said, while his ordeal lasted, all that was on his mind was his nuclear and extended family, his village members, the widows and the helpless ones there. He said that he feared for what his community would go through and how the police would harass the youths unendingly on account of him. He said that, when he weighed his chances of survival, everything to him looked bleak.
“The place I was kept was a storey-building; the flat was upstairs. I was kept in one of the toilets, stripped down to my underwear. Everything I had on me was taken; my wedding ring was among what was also taken. Then they started their mental torture and threats. It was terrible.
“That first night, I was given some snacks to eat; but I told them that I was on a regular diabetes drug. I heard them debating on getting the drugs.
“Those who took me to the house had left, leaving me with another set. They gave me breakfast and dinner so that I could use my drugs. They made sure that I didn’t take my drugs without eating. I was having my bath once a day. I ate, defecated, and slept at the same spot. I was the only person occupying the toilet. By the next day they removed my blindfold, which meant that I could see.
“The two guards who were with me did not cover their faces. However, they ensured that I faced the wall before they stepped in. From the beginning, they told me that if I looked at them in the face, I would be a dead man the next minute.
“For the first two days they didn’t talk to me; they didn’t relate to any of my family members either. They kept on picking all the information they needed: my bank account and contact address. The kidnap was on Friday but they only spoke to me on Sunday.
“It was on that Sunday that they told me that they had changed their minds, and that their first mission was to kill me. They first asked me to pay N100 million.
“I told them that I didn’t have such money and didn’t have contact with people with such money. They refused to negotiate with me after noticing my attitude towards their price.
“They started negotiating with the contacts I gave them. I gave them the contact of one of my friends, brothers and the traditional ruler of my community. I chose those people because they know all aspects of my life. I wanted them to pass the message around that I was alive,” he said.
Nwuke further recalled that, following the torture and pressure his captors exerted on him, he prepared his mind to meet death, as he had lost mates with whom he was friends in their days at University of Nigeria.
“As an undergraduate of University of Nigeria, I had four friends. Among us, I’m the only one still alive today. Since the death of the last one a year ago, death no longer means anything to me. So, I had submitted myself to death after losing the trio. Now, I can no longer fear death. So, I was expecting death to claim me. I was ready,” he said.
He noted that, while he was still in captivity, he could not bottle his benevolence; he felt the pain of his abductors: “I eavesdropped on the conversation of my two adaptors. I gathered that they were both graduates who went into kidnapping to survive. One of them was telling the other that he would boost his business with the spoils of the deal, while the other one kept saying that he was going to travel abroad.”
He lamented that while the ordeal of his kidnap hurt him a lot, what pained him the more was the attitude of the police towards the matter.
He said that on the day of his release, he was dropped somewhere on Orlu Road, and from there, he made his way home.
Nwuke also stated that, shortly after he regained his freedom, he made himself available to the police at Orlu Police Station but was surprisingly not attended to. He said that he was not listened to, neither was his kidnap case registered.
“I was expecting the police to invite me for interrogation and gather some information from me but, till now, I have not been invited even after I reported the matter to them.
“When I was released, I called them and they thanked God on my behalf and the matter died there. I was willing to help them catch those kidnappers and to clear my community’s name but the police did not want my cooperation. I called the DPO myself but he failed to answer,” he said.
Nwuke said that he was amazed that his abductors wore police uniforms and that should have been of concern to the police. But he cliamed that the police authorities in Orlu did not say anything tangible even about the matter of the uniforms.