My abductors sold me to herdsmen, Edo NIS spokesperson recounts experience

By SUYI AYODELE, Benin

“I was meant to be killed, but my abductors sold me to herdsmen. I saw hell and I don’t wish my enemy such.” Those were the exact words of the Public Relations Officer of the Edo State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, Mrs Bridget Esene, who was kidnapped on Sunday and released on Tuesday.

Esene, it would be recalled, was kidnapped on her way to the church, on Sunday, by some armed men, and she only regained her freedom, 72 hours later.

Narrating her ordeals, the NIS, Edo Command’ Public Relations Officer said that she was meant to be killed by her abductors, who later had a change of mind and sold her to some suspected Fulani herdsmen, who took her deep into the forest.

Esene, who expressed happiness over her release, however, lamented that she suffered in the hands of her abductors.

“The armed men numbering five trailed me to my church at Ikhueniro near Benin city where I kidnapped. I was forced into their car and driven out of the church premises by my abductors who later sold me to another set of kidnappers, who are suspected herdsmen. I saw hell and l don’t wish my enemy such,” she relayed.

Esene said that upon sighting the kidnappers, she attempted to escape but was intercepted at gunpoint by the hoodlums and the armed men later took her into the forest, where some other hardened kidnappers were on ground to receive her.

“I was later sold to another set of gunmen who then took me deep into the forest,” she disclosed

Though a family source had on Tuesday disclosed that some unspecified amount of money was paid to the kidnappers as ransom before she was released, Esene, however, said she was rescued by the police and the vigilante. (Nigerian Tribune)