“I have every cause to be happy and thankful to God for saving my life,” the victim began, in the midst of his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and elated relatives, among others.
The octogenarian, who gave toothy smiles occasionally as he narrated his ordeal to the reporter continued: “So, I’m the one in my house, I’m being surrounded by members of my family? Some days ago, I was in a thick forest, sleeping on the ground and surrounded by some gun-trotting, unfriendly fellows, who wanted me dead if I failed to do their biddings.”
“I could not imagine my family, not seeing my corpse at the age of 80. Once more, I thank God.”
It was gathered that on the day of the incident, Pa Asarewon and Rolland left Warri at about 8.00 am , hoping to get to Lagos by 2.00 pm. Unfortunately, the journey they thought would take them at least, six hours lasted for eight days and in fear, pains and anguish.
It was learnt that the journey, through Warri to Benin axis was smooth. But their ordeal began immediately after the Okada Junction, just before the gate of Ogbemudia Farms. Rolland, who owns the Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) in which they were traveling, had stopped over to purchase some plantain. As soon as he stopped, a vehicle allegedly pulled by their side while one of the occupants brandished a gun and ordered them to ‘co-operate.’
The four occupants of the car were said to have been armed with A.K. 47 riffles. One of them took over the driver’s seat while the others sandwiched Pa Asawaron and Rolland on the owner’s seat. And that was how they were taken to an unknown destination where they were held hostage for eight days .
“As soon as their driver took over the steering, he veered off the expressway and drove into the thick forest until we got to a point, where the road became impassable for vehicles. We alighted from the vehicle and trekked another long distance in the forest.
At that time, they had set the driver of our vehicle free. When I became tired, I sat down and refused to move further. It was then that one of them carried me on his back like a baby. We crossed two rivers, using a locally made boat, before we finally got to our destination. The kidnappers were six men and two women. Four men carried out the arrest while we met two others on the way. Besides, we saw two women and suspected them to be the ones, who prepared food for them.
It is a big business. When people called them on phone, they usually told the callers that they had business in the camp. The journey was tedious, stressful and fearful. At about 4.00 a.m., we were walking in the middle of a strange, wild forest,” Asawaron lamented, as he recalled the incident, which almost caused him heart attack. Hear him again: “As we were coming, we threw away our handsets, suspecting that they might use them to contact our families, to demand ransom.”
“As expected, the leader of the gang asked for our handsets, when we got to their camp and we told him we did not have any. He became furious and started torturing us, using cane and gun butts. He threatened to kill us and give our bodies to wild animals if we continued to make things difficult for them.
“That was when I began to think that the end had come. The only thing that saved us was when the kidnappers remembered that they still had our driver’s handset on them. It was from the driver’s handset that they got in contact with Rolland’s relatives.”
The victim described his experience in the kidnappers’ den as a bitter one, saying he never wished his enemy to experience such horrible thing.“At the age of 80, I do not have the strength to withstand the rough shuffling, pushing and threats of death from the criminals. I thought I would not see today. I was kept in a thick forest, in the rain or sun shine, for eight days. Mosquitoes and all kinds of insects feasted on us. Concerning feeding, the kidnappers used ‘bush meat’ to prepare a delicacy known as ‘pepper soup’ and served us dodo, prepared from plantain, rice, beans and other assorted foods. But the appetite was not there to eat all that they offered us. In some cases, they threatened to kill us, before we managed to eat little food. I would have died, if I had stayed longer than a day in the kidnappers’ den,” he confessed, with shouts of ‘praise the Lord!’ from his children, relatives and friends.
Help later came the way of Pa Asarewon when one of Rolland’s relatives was contacted on phone by the kidnappers and he agreed to pay N3 million ransom. He said: “Initially, the kidnappers were asking for N15 million ransom. They told me to get in touch with my children for them to withdraw some money from their bank accounts and bring to them. I told them I was a poor pensioner, who did not have money anywhere. They ignored me and later concentrated their efforts on Rolland, whom they discovered to be a very rich man.
They finally agreed to take the sum of N3 million, which was sent to them, through a driver of an identified vehicle. Ironically, the driver they sent to an agreed spot, to hand over the money to the kidnappers, was also abducted by the same gang. They began to ask for extra N3 million before we, including him, could regain our freedom. Look, my brother , I almost gave up the ghost. It was when the money was paid that we were set free.”
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