SOLDIERS from 144 Battalion Army base, Ngwa High School in Aba, Abia State, have destroyed a kidnappers’ camp located at Amuzu Ibeku in Osisioma Local Government Area.
It was gathered that the bungalow had been used by the gang to harbour some of their victims until a ransom is paid.
Though the owner of the house identified as Mr. Ejike Uzodinma and his gang were said to have fled the camp after one of their victims (a businessman) escaped from their custody, the team of army personnel who conducted a search operation in the camp and neighbouring compounds recovered a registered tricycle the group used to ferry him to the camp.
An unconfirmed report has it that the kidnappers also abducted a female victim whose whereabouts is still unknown.
A victim, who was held in their camp and later escaped, attributed his escape to God’s intervention and described the inhumane torture he passed through in the hands of the kidnappers as not what he would wish even his enemies to go through.
The victim, a businessman based in Aba who preferred to speak on the condition of anonymity, said: “I was driving to my house at about 10pm on Saturday after sitting out with my friends when a Toyota Corolla ash colour suddenly double-crossed me and at gunpoint ordered me out of my car and moved me into their vehicle.
“They blindfolded me inside their vehicle and later took me to a location at about 11am. They initially asked me to sit in a plastic chair from where I was taken to another location in a bush around 1am Sunday morning.
“Around 5am, they took off from the bush into a house where I slept till the following morning. Initially, they demanded N20 million ransom, but I told them that I can only guarantee N200,000, a plea that didn’t go down well with them. One of them slapped me and threatened to kill me but I kept begging them.”
