One of the freed pupils of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe, Ramon Isiaq, has said his stay in the kidnappers’ hideout is an experience he would never forget in a hurry.
The 16-year-old Senior Secondary School 2 pupil said the abductors exposed him and his colleagues - Peter Jonah, Adebayo George, Judah Agbausi, Pelumi Philips and Farouq Yusuf – to rains in the camp they were kept.
He said they were fed with poorly cooked food and that they were only allowed to bathe once in a week. The children were dropped at a creek in Ondo State around 12 pm on Friday after spending 64 days in captivity.
Their release came on the heels of fresh N5m ransom collected by the kidnappers on Tuesday at Odi-Omi community in Ogun State. Isiaq in a brief chat with one of Punch correspondents on the telephone on Saturday said there were times they went hungry all day.
He said, “After they kidnapped us that day (May 25), we were kept around our school, while a (police) helicopter was patrolling the area. They asked us to hide in a bush so that people in the helicopter would not see us. In the midnight, they sent a boat to pick us. “The following day, they gave us spaghetti. We ate the same thing in the afternoon and evening. They told us that some security men were sent to fight them, but they killed the men. They threatened that we would die there. “We were seven in an uncompleted building. The seventh person is a man that was looking after us. It was a bad experience. We didn’t enjoy our sleep. We always prayed that rain would not fall. If rain fell, it would beat us. Sometimes, they didn’t give us food; at times they gave us food once in a day. At other times, they wouldn’t give us food at all. We ate together. We bathed once or twice in a week.”he said
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