Sowore: “The bandits are Fulani herdsmen”- victim

The victim of Saturday abduction along the Benin-Okada expressway, Emmanuella Anyanwu, has narrated how she escaped from the kidnappers’ den in the forest.

Anyanwu, a widow was travelling from Lagos to the East for the burial of her husband when the armed bandits struck, killing Sahara Reporters’ publisher, Omoyele Sowore’s younger brother, Felix Olajide Sowore, who was driving by at the time.

Anyanwu and four other passengers were captured by the bandits and taken into the forest.

According to her, trouble started for them when the vehicle they were travelling in broke down and they had to pass the night inside it.

According to her, the armed bandits came out of the bush in the morning, shooting sporadically to instill fear in them. She said they surrendered and were taken into the bush.

They walked for about two hours in blindfold before they got to the abductors’ camp where each of the victims were interrogated to establish their worth.

Anyanwu said she decided to summon the courage to escape from the camp when their captors brought in new victims and focused attention on a man among them.

Read excerpts from the interview she granted MSN:

Please, what is your name?

My name is Emmanuella Anyanwu, I am from Imo State.

On Friday, we were coming from Lagos to the East and our vehicle broke down around Okada on the outskirts of Benin. We passed the night in the vehicle.

About 6.30 am to 7 am, some men came out from the bush shooting at us and we surrendered. They took our belongings including our phones and marched us into the bush. It took us almost two hours to get to their camp. They blindfolded us. So they started calling us one after the other and I was the last person they called. They asked me where I was coming from and were I was going. I told them that I was coming from Lagos and going to Imo State for my husband burial. They asked how many kids I have, I told them two and I also told them I sell groundnut in Lagos. They asked if I was the one providing the money to bury my husband and I told them his brother will do that.

“They also wanted to know what my sister is doing and I told them she sells bread in the village. They asked if I know them, I said no. They asked if I know the police and army, I told them I know those ones. They told me they were kidnappers and said they abducted me because of ransom. They said if I don’t have money they will take my life. I asked them how much they wanted. But one of them was furious I was asking them questions. I told them I needed to know the ransom. They asked if I had N10m and I told them there was no way to get that kind of money. I told them I will give them N500,000 from money gathered from my village. One of them said I was a fool and they told me to sit down.

“Then it started raining heavily and they went away and brought one man again. So they took something from that man and their attention was on it. So I removed my blindfold and decided to escape but I decided to shelf the plan till midnight. But my spirit told me to escape because I would not have the opportunity to do so in the night because the abductors don’t sleep in the night. I crept and that was how I escaped.

What is the tribe of those who kidnapped you?

I believe they are Fulani. Because on that Saturday afternoon, they released their cow and they came to where we were being held.

How did you get to Benin?

I saw a mast far away and I started trekking toward it. After one hour or more, I got to a road and saw an elderly man on a motorcycle and I asked him to take me to the police station, which he did. We were two ladies and three men.

Are you aware of the death of a man?

They were shooting at cars but I can’t say if anyone died.

Were they harsh towards you?

They were very harsh and warned us not to look at their faces. They also asked us not to talk to each other.

They were beating the men but spared the women.  I sustained the wounds on my body when I was trying to find my way out of the bush.