Four young men, students of Gateway ICT Polytechnic, Saapade, Ogun State, squeezed into a small bathroom holding their breath.
Outside the locked door, the sharp sound of gunshots shattered the quiet evening at the private student hostel along Paraga Road, Ipara-Remo, one of the communities adjoining the polytechnic.
Just a few minutes past 8 pm on Wednesday, July 29, they had been sitting together in their rented apartment, laughing, chatting and relaxing after a long day.
One of the students had just stepped out to buy dinner and was preparing to head back when rapid gunfire tore through the neighbourhood.
Then came a sudden uproar outside, and someone shouted, “Ole, Ole”, (meaning thief, thief), followed by the sound of footsteps on the passage floor.
“I thought maybe it was armed robbers,” one of the students recalled.
In desperation, he attempted to reach a police officer stationed in Saapade via mobile phone, but poor network connectivity ended the call.
They decided to lock themselves in the bathroom, pressed against the walls, praying that the door would hold or that the gunmen would pass by.
Instead, the footsteps stopped right outside their flat. The attackers moved from room to room, forcing doors open before finally arriving at the bathroom.
“We tried to hide ourselves inside the toilet. The kidnappers started shooting and moved from one apartment to another until they got to ours.
“They forced the door open and shot directly at the bathroom where we hid ourselves, asking us to come out. ‘Everybody out’ was the instruction they gave us.
“We came out and were asked to sleep on the floor,” he further narrated.
Their bags were searched, their shoes and clothes were taken, and their identities were questioned under threat of violence.
“They asked who owned the house and who was our boss,” another survivor recounted.
“We told them we had no boss and that we were all students. They said no, that we were doing Yahoo (cybercrime). They said since we were lying, they would take some of us so our boss could provide money to bail us out.
“We were eight in number, so they took five of us, tied our hands behind our backs and led us into the bush. Their formation was three at the back, one in the middle and three in front of us,” he stated.
Deep within the forest, the true extent of the hostage situation became clear. The kidnappers forced the students to identify their mobile phones, discarding the rest in the bush.
“When we got to a particular place, they sat us down and asked us to identify our phones.
“We did, and the phones that were left were thrown into the bush. On our way, we saw someone inside the bush, a man. They killed him, tied his hands and legs, stabbed him and left him there.
“They told us that if we did not cooperate, they would kill us too. So, we started following their orders.
“They led us to a place inside that same bush. They knew all the corners of the bush. They were taking things from the road, like corn, and gave them to us to carry,” he continued.
Deep in the bush, the students encountered another victim, an abducted individual identified simply as ‘Biggie’, who had been taken a day earlier, on Tuesday.
The captors then initiated their ransom demands, asking the students if they understood how bandits operate.
He said the captors made their terms absolute: “Pay or be killed.”
“At first, they demanded a huge ransom of N30 million each and family members were contacted under intense duress.
“I called my mom and brother and told them we were asked to pay N30 million,” the second victim recalled.
“The kidnappers stood behind us eating, drinking and laughing. Sometimes, they just walked up to us and slapped us from behind without us doing anything to them,” he added.
As time passed, the demands escalated wildly, with individual ransoms reassessed between N5 million and N50 million.
“They said I would pay N50 million, Biggie would pay N50 million, Malik, my childhood friend, would pay N5 million, Ayo N5 million, Yusuf N7 million, and one other boy, I can’t remember his name, would pay N10 million,” he further stated.
For days, the hostages were subjected to extreme deprivation and physical abuse. They were deprived of sunlight and kept blindfolded except when permitted to relieve themselves.
DAILY POST learnt that the students walked throughout the night until morning to evade detection.
“We only moved at night; during the day, they hid us in the bush.
“We passed through about three rivers. They gave us gutter water to drink when it rained,” the second victim explained.
When one student, overwhelmed by exhaustion and hunger, begged to be killed rather than continue walking, the kidnappers offered a single bowl of garri drink, warning that no further complaints would be tolerated.
“We got to a deep forest, and that place was smelling.
“They said they killed and buried some people there who failed to pay their ransom. As we were crying, they cut a big stick and used it to beat us without mercy,” he added.
The Net Closes In: Drones, Tear Gas and Crossfire
Unknown to the kidnappers, security agencies were actively tracking the syndicate through the dense terrain using air surveillance and ground tactical units.
Two days into the ordeal, the sound of a drone signalled that help was approaching.
Shortly after, the forest echoed with police commandos shouting operational orders and firing tear gas into the brush.
Panicked, the seven armed captors forced the hostages on a gruelling all-night march from 8 pm to 6 am to relocate deeper into the forest network.
The final breakthrough occurred when security operatives at the encampment engaged the gunmen in a heavy firefight.
In the ensuing chaos, the hostages made split-second decisions to survive the crossfire.
“We were sleeping when we started to hear noises outside,” another victim, whose name was withheld, said.
“We tried holding our breath when the gunshots started. The kidnappers asked us to follow them, but after a point, we turned back because the gunshots were too much.
“My friend was shot. I ran back into the bush and hid behind a tree,” he disclosed.
For the first victim, a critical moment of confusion nearly proved fatal.
He said, “We were trying to run towards the police when we saw someone in the bush who was signalling us to come.
“I was confused because I didn’t know if it was the police or one of the kidnappers. As I stepped out, they fired at my leg immediately. Hit in the leg, the student collapsed to the ground.
“I fell to the ground and played dead. I could hear footsteps coming close to me. They checked me and said, ‘This one looks like he’s dead.’ So they left me,” he recalled.
Rescue and Restored Faith
Lying wounded in the rain as the gunfire subsided, the injured student heard the hum of a tactical drone overhead, followed by the approach of ground forces.
He narrated: “The next thing I saw was a drone and then the voice of a policeman.
“He said, ‘Check if this one is alive; if he’s not, fire him and let’s go back to the office.’ On hearing that, I knew it was the police, and I shouted, ‘Please, I am a student! You guys should help me!’”
Confirming that he was a victim, one of the officers immediately rendered aid and carried him on his back.
Despite his injury, the student urged the team to search for his friend.
The second victim, who had been hiding behind a tree close to his injured friend, emerged when called, coming face-to-face with the security team that had tracked them through the forest.
For the first victim, whose father served as a police officer before passing away five years ago, the brave intervention of the tactical team profoundly altered his perception of state security.
“Before, I didn’t have confidence in the police,” he admitted, adding: “I doubted that the police would be able to help us, but they kept looking for us inside the bush.
“My dad was a policeman, and he’s been dead now for five years. I understand what it feels like for them to leave their families behind and hunt for us inside the bush. I am grateful and happy to be alive today.”
Recall that the State Commissioner of Police, Bode Ojajuni, while addressing journalists last Thursday at the Governor’s office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, disclosed that the operatives had arrested two of the kidnappers.
Ojajuni stated that the anti-kidnapping unit, in close collaboration with the DSS and other security agencies, sustained painstaking intelligence gathering, surveillance and coordinated ground operations.
DAILY POST reported that the command, on Thursday, August 6, located and stormed the suspected kidnappers’ hideout along the Sagamu-Abeokuta Expressway, where the suspects engaged the security operatives in a gun battle, during which three suspected kidnappers were neutralised while others escaped with gunshot wounds.
Items recovered from their hideout included one AK-47 rifle, one empty magazine, four mobile phones and N2.3 million in cash.
