Chief Donatus, the kidnap victim story is unbelievable
as he narrates his ordeal and reported by Vanguard newspaper. The victim, Chief Donatus as he
preferred to be called in his story for security reasons), is one of Evan's
kidnap victims. He was abducted close to his office on February 14, 2017. He
subsequently held for about 90days and miraculously escaped from their hideout
having heart from the kidnapper’s conversations that he will be killed. In this
exclusive interview with Vanguard, the man gave a stunning account of his ugly experience.
Read the story below...
(Chief Donatus wouldn't want his
photo published as police have not provided him any protection and he's
still afraid that Evans gang might be after him).
Excerpts;
On the 14th February, 2017, at about
7:30pm, while I was going home from my office at Ilupeju, I suddenly saw an SUV
opposite me. I wanted to reverse but somebody in the front came down with a
long gun and dragged me out from my car. He pushed me inside the SUV.
Immediately they moved away from the street, they transferred me to the back of
the SUV and covered me with a car mat while one of them sat on top of me. They
drove me to an unknown place but before we got there, the one at the back with
me now put iron (chain) on my hands. There were about five of them in the SUV.
I was carried away and didn't know what to say. I was afraid for my life and
was thinking whether they were assassins or kidnappers because I have some
cases in the court. So, I thought maybe those people are the ones after me.
Trip to hideout
When we got there, they asked me to
come down but remain faced down, which I did. The house was a bungalow with a
parlour and their generator was on. They asked me; are you Chief Donatus, I
said yes, what's your wife's name? I told them. They now told me that they were
not going to harm me, that what they wanted was their own share and that I
should corporate. After that, they brought out one AK-47 and a pistol with live
ammunitions and showed me that this is not a child's play. They now brought out
a locally made iron like chain and put on my legs, blindfolded me, then pushed
me into one dark room. It was a self-contained room with bathroom and toilet
inside. There was a standing fan, one high rise foam with bed spread and
curtains on the widow but throughout my stay there, it was not opened even for
one day. I was there till the following day. There was no food for me through
out that night, but in the morning, they brought Indomie for me after brushing.
I took my bath and ate. They asked me not to look at them any time I wanted to
bath so when the time comes; I raised the blindfold up a bit, making sure that
they did not see me.
Familiar voice echoes
After about two days, I heard a
voice that sounds like my pharmacist, Emeke and it was while I was eating,
normally while eating, I used to raise the blindfold up small to enable me to
see. He asked them where they kept me. As he was talking, ours eyes met and he
shuddered. He now withdrew, but before he left, he asked them whether they have
contacted my brothers and they said no. I was hearing everything they were
discussing. They even asked how they could get to my wife but he told them that
my wife doesn't usually come to the office. What I noticed was that, in the
first one week, they were not harsh but that changed all of a sudden. I used to
brush every morning but it became once in a week. I noticed that, any time they
wanted me to bathe, they would come to my room early morning with one small
bucket of water and asked me to get up and take my bath. Then after that,
everywhere would be so quiet as if nobody lived in that compound. So, in the
night before they put on their generator, it used to be around 8:30pm so that
the neighbourhood would now think that they have come back from their home
while they were inside the house all through without any music and no
television. I noticed also that, whenever their boss called them, they would
put on one small radio so that neighbours would not hear whatever they were
discussing. After five days there, I started getting weak and I asked them how
much I have to pay. Their manager now called their chairman and they discussed.
Their chairman, as they called him, was not discussing with anybody except the
manager, they were three. The manager now came to me and said his boss said my
bill was two million dollars. I asked where I would get that kind of money. We
don't usually keep money at home; we do borrow from banks to do business. After
much pleading, he reduced it to one million dollar. But after two days, he
said, he has gotten more information about me and it's no more dollars again,
it's one million Euros. At exactly two weeks of my hostage, they contacted my
brother through the phone number I gave them. When he called my brother, he
asked his manager to connect me, I think it was a conference call because he
was hearing the conversation but whenever he wanted to talk to me, he would put
it on pause and would tell me what to tell my family.
Negotiation starts
Initially, I was telling my brother
that, they said it was one million Euros but he said, "No, that I'm a mad
person, that I should tell my brother that I have agreed with them that it is
one million Euros" and I did so. My brothers were crying because where
would they get such an amount of money. There were times they would be beating
me so that my brothers would hear and know that I was suffering. That iron was
on my leg throughout my stay in the place except when I was going to bath. They
used to serve me indomie twice a day or some times, Semovita with one meat. They
used to cook in the house. There was a lady that used to come and cook for
them. The lady used to come with a small girl. My brother called and said that
there was no money but they managed to gather fifty million and he said my
brothers were all mad, that if they did not complete the money, he was prepared
to keep me for the next one year and that they were not paying rent and that
they were the owners of the house.
For one month, I was there because
gathering that money was not easy. I did not know whether I was the only victim
there or not because throughout my 90 days incarceration, I was only in that
one room. He vowed to collect the ransom complete. My brothers went to collect
a lot of money from our relatives. I know when it was one hundred million, but
he still insisted. I knew there was a time the exchange dropped, so, he now
asked them not to change the money. When he said one million Euros, the Euro
was about five hundred and thirty naira per Euro. So, when the rate was
dropping, he asked them not to change, that it was now naira they wanted
because he thought naira was gaining value, which would have been five hundred
million. When my brother now told them that he was not able to get one hundred
million, they said he was talking rubbish. It was Tuesday before Easter; my
brothers were doing everything to get me out to celebrate Easter with them. He
now called my brother and said he should bring whatsoever they had; my brother
now told them what he had.
He told my elder brother that he was
going to be the one that would deliver the money and that he would shoot his
two legs if he tried to joke with them. They were all quarrelling. The manger
now took the phone from me and started insulting my brother that, he was very
stupid, and very wicked, that he wanted me to die so that he could go and
inherit my property. On Thursday, before Easter, I asked the manager about
their chairman. I used to chat with them, and I was trying to be friendly with
them. Then the manager told me that the chairman travelled to America. He came
back the next Sunday after Easter. I now asked; can I talk to my brothers?
Because it was like I have already been cut off from the real world.
Effect of Vanguard publication
So, the first publication about my
abduction in Vanguard newspapers was on Saturday, then, the chairman (Evans)
called his manager and was speaking with anger saying that my brother wanted to
kill me. After the call, his manager now came to me to say that, "your
brother doesn't want you alive. He went to do a newspaper publication while he
has been begging that he doesn't have money. Now, where did he get the money to
do the publication?" On Sunday, the chairman called to say that I should
thank my God, that if they had published that story in Vanguard before now,
there was no way he wouldn't have collected one billion naira from me. Then on
Tuesday, the story was everywhere on Facebook. The chairman now called the
manager again complaining bitterly about the publication on Facebook. But
again, I pleaded with them that my brother didn't have Facebook account just
like me. He doesn't have time for all these things, maybe it could be women
that did that. They were very angry about that newspaper publication. After
that, there was no communication from the chairman even my brothers again.
Calls for change of negotiator
Exactly one month after Easter, he
now called again that he didn't want to discuss anything with my brothers
again, that I should call another person. I now called my cousin and the
manager asked me to tell chairman whenever he called that, my brother wanted to
kill me so he should hands off this case. One day after that discussion with
the chairman, I heard Emeka, my pharmacist discussing with them. Normally, he
did come there every day. Sometimes, he stayed till late night. And I was
overhearing his voice. At a point I thought, he was no longer living with his
wife because he stayed late there.
Decision to kill me
I heard Emeka discussing with
manager but what drew my attention was when the manager said "... .ehh...
for that reason, we don't have choice than to kill him, we would kill him. We
don't have alternative than to kill him. I overheard Emeka calling my staff
from there. He was complaining that I was very wicked, that this was what I
have done to some persons. He was complaining that one of my pharmacists was
not cooperating. When I now heard that they would kill me, I now encouraged
myself that, maybe it's not me. There was a day Emeka came again and said,
"If you want to kill him, kill him, in fact, kill him" until that
week that I escaped from them on Wednesday, Emeka came again and asked them
whether they have killed me. They said no... that it is going to be on Friday
night. I said to God, that it has been said that nobody knows when he is going
to die but it is like I know when I'm going to die. Even the first day that
they made up their mind to kill me, the manager now called the one that
travelled to come back so I thought it was going to be that night. I was
counting the days because I did not know when my end would come. I didn't even
know that this was even almost two months after collecting ransom from my
brothers. I didn't know that they collected it. I was told this when I came
out. When their Chairman travelled, I thought he travelled to America like his
people said or South Africa maybe; he went to save the money. Throughout that
Wednesday, I wasn't myself even when they brought the Indomie, I couldn't eat.
Mysterious escape from the dark room
It was on Friday night that my
miracle happened. Way back, for the 90 days period of my captivity, I was
trying to remove that iron from my leg without success, but that night around
2:00 am to 3:00 am, something asked me to get up and I got up and prayed. After
that, the voice said to me that I should try opening that padlock which I did.
I squeezed small size of the bed spread and passed it through the padlock and
pulled it with little effort once, and the padlock opened. I said to myself,
God, if I go and these people catch me, I will die, and if I remain here till
daybreak, I would also die. So, the best thing is that, let me go and try it.
It was God that opened this padlock, because I know that it wasn't my personal
power. That God will lead me out. Before then, I had begged them to be leaving
the door linking my room to the parlour open so that I will be getting fresh
air from there. Luckily, there was light that night and there was curtain and
linen, so I made sure that the inside of my room was darker than the palour so
that, even if they opened the curtain and look inside, they would not see me.
There were two of them sleeping at the palour and because there was light that
night, I couldn't step on anyone of them. I said to my God, I will go; I will
go. I left for the palour, from there to the kitchen.
There, I saw another burglary at the
kitchen door and I concluded that I could not open it and had to go back
through the palour to my dark room again while those people were still
sleeping. I carried the iron and put it back on my legs but didn't lock it
again. One mind said I should go again, I should go and try, I got up again
went through the palour yet, they did not notice, then I closed the back door.
Luckily, the wooden door that leads outside was not locked while the burglary
was locked at the middle. The upper bolt and the down ones were just held down.
When I pushed the upper bolt and the down one, the burglary opened and I now
went outside their compound. I saw their gate, I turned the other side and I
saw something like ladder resting on the fence. Their fence had broken bottles
on top of it but at that point where the ladder was, the broken bottles were
not there. That was where I climbed the fence, stepped my foot and jumped to
the other compound.
Escape route.
While inside that compound, I
knocked at the door of a flat, one man and a woman came out. I told them that,
I was a kidnap victim being kept in the other compound; I just managed to
escape now, please help me. The man said, "Mr. Man get away from this compound
before I call the police or vigilante for you" and I responded, please
call the police. The man and his wife went back to sleep leaving me there
alone. All of a sudden, everywhere became quiet again. One mind told me that I
should go somewhere and hide till day break which I did.
Not up to ten minutes that I left to
hide, my abductors now opened their gate looking for me everywhere with their
motorcycles. I was in my hideout praying to God to save my life. I was there
till day break. I was looking like a mad person. For three months, I had not
shaved, everywhere was white, and I was only putting up a dirty boxer that I
had worn for the past 90 days without washing. When those couple woke up and
saw me, they were surprised and as he wanted to raise alarm, I said no, these
people there don't let them know I am here. I said to him, "please sir;
can you just put me inside your booth and drive me away from here?" He
said no ... he was not going to do that, that I should wait here. He now said
he was going to call the chairman of the estate. After about 45 minutes, they
came back.
Rescue at last
One young boy that should be above
20 years came with something like a plastic conduit wiring and started chasing
me away that, I should go out of the compound and he continued calling me a
thief. There was this uniformed security personnel there, he hit me on the leg
and I fell down. I was injured while jumping down from the fence. I now walked
out of the compound to one school very close to my abductor's gate. I was there
as people gathered. I told them that, if these people come and see me here,
they would kill me, this is how much I have offered them, that I'm not a thief
but they insisted that I should wait until the estate chairman came. I asked
what if they come with gun and all of you will run away and they will kill me.
Luckily, one young guy came and
listened to me and asked if I could give him my wife's number? I gave it to
him, he called and the number did not go through. I then gave him my cousin's
number and he got him on phone. So, my cousin told him my story and he was now
convinced. From there, we took a bike to the express from where we entered a
bus. While inside the bus, people were just staring at me. What they used to
blind fold me was a singlet, for ninety days, there was nothing like seeing the
sun, so my body turned white. When we got to Idimu police division, we did not
spend up to 20 minutes when my brother came.
They now contacted Ilupeju police
division where they first made the report. From there, we went to command
headquarters where we wasted a lot of time before going to Anti-Kidnapping unit
at Surulere. After that, we went to Igando. While going there, I could not
recognize the road but the young man that took me out of that place led us to
the place. So, when we got to the estate, I was able to recognize the school
where they asked me to sit down which was not too far from the place where I
was kept for 90 days. I recognized the house by the coconut tree there and I
told the security operatives, that this was the house. When we came to the
gate, it was locked with a padlock and they have all run away. They had to
break it and go inside where their cars, motorcycles and all their properties
left behind were there. The security operatives went inside and collected all
the weapons they left behind.
Reminiscences
When I heard that they were going to
kill me, I said is this how my life was going to end? I was calling my wife, my
son and my daughter in my mind, thinking that was the end. Emeka joined me in
2013; he joined me as a sales representative but later became a superintendent.
I used to give him goods to sell and return the money. After sometime he
stopped retuning the money and I asked them not to give him goods again. I
never expected to hear his voice there. Before then, something happened. They
started telling me things that I did, it's like they had a lot of information
about me. I was told that I gave 40 Toyota Corolla cars to my staff and I said
yes, I had 40 marketers and I gave them cars. Everything including my
warehouses, they knew. One Sunday in April, I heard Emeka telling them they
should go and start working, and that they shouldn't talk about money which I
suspected they were transferring goods from my stores to where they would take
them out of Lagos. I heard him requesting for form M which could help him out
in case of police.
My plea
Now that they have arrested their
king pin, Evans, I plead with the police that did this good job to ensure that
justice was done in this case. It is obvious that many of his gang members are
still on the loose. They should all be rounded up because although I have been
freed, I am still not only traumatized but also afraid of my life. It is
unfortunate that since I came out of this ugly experience, the police did not
deem fit to provide security for me. I have since relocated with members of my
family to an unknown place. It is worse even now that I have no means of
livelihood. I have been wrecked after borrowing money from banks to pay the
ransom. What we are trying to do now is to start paying debt to the bank.
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