Enugu-born
businessman, Chief Emeka Omii, has told the heart-rending story of his
miraculous survival after kidnappers shot him several times in the mouth, thigh
and neck, for attempting to escape from where he was being held.
Having
gone through the valley of the shadow of death as the Good Book described the
experience of the Psalmist, Omii could easily be likened to the proverbial cat
with nine lives.
Notwithstanding
the fact that his body bears the ugly signs of his encounter with the merchants
of death, Omii is exceedingly happy, and understandably so, to be alive to tell
his story.
To
start with, Omii was stripped naked by the gang that abducted and threatened to
waste him if he did not give them N50 million. To prove that it was not an empty
threat, the kidnappers beat him black and blue; they blindfolded him, tied his
hands and legs and left in the bush. But determined to live, Omii made brave
efforts to escape from where he was being held, but was caught again by the
kidnappers, who shot then him on the thigh, neck and mouth.
With
bullet wounds in his body, he eventually escaped from his captors and hid in an
uncompleted church building. Bleeding profusely, he was mistaken for a thief
by locals, who almost burnt him alive but for the quick intervention of a
community leader.
Recalling
that horrifying experience of watching young men wanting to set him on fire,
Omii said: “They came with tyres, logs and different things, saying that I was
a thief. They kept me there, asking me all sorts of questions. They did not
even allow me to explain anything. I was bleeding; I was dying.”
Omii,
who is based in Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State, revealed that
the encounter with the dare devil kidnappers happened at Aro Ngwa, Abia State,
where he had gone to pay workers harvesting palm fruits for him.
Continuing
the sweet tale of how he survived the bitter experience he had in the hands of
kidnappers, Omii, who hails from Arinri Local Government Area of Enugu State
said: “On that fateful day, I went to Aro Ngwa to pay my workers who were
harvesting palm fruits for me. On getting there, about seven young men with
guns accosted us. It was about 3pm. They said that everybody should lie down
but I asked them, ‘gentlemen, who are you?’ They said we should obey first
before asking questions. But I told them that they just can’t come and tell us
to lie down like that. Then they told me that they were kidnappers. I got up;
they told my friend, Mr David Orafor, to get up but he was lying on the ground,
he didn’t get up. So, they shot at him. Fortunately the bullets didn’t get him;
they passed through his armpit. Thinking that they had injured my friend, I
tried to go and check what they had done to him. They hit me with the butt of a
gun and took me away. They took my car – a Sienna space wagon and put me at the
back seat and we left. I told my friend that I would be coming back. But
before they came, somebody who sold a land to me nicknamed Baba Ke though late
now, passed by on a motorcycle. He was answering a call and looking at me. He
said he was coming. Immediately he passed, this people came.
“They
took me to Obingwa and demanded that I should give them N50million. I told them
that I had never seen such money before; I told them that the only money I had
on me was N200,000. I said I would give it to them and I was also ready to give
them the original documents of my car but they told me that if I do not give
them N50 million they would waste me. They took me inside the bush, stripped me
naked, tied my hands and blindfolded me and asked me to stay there. I was there
till about 7pm when they came back on a motorcycle, asking me if I was ready to
bring the N50 million. Again, I told them I had never seen such amount of
money. I wanted to shout but they said if I shouted, they would kill me. I
begged them to give me water to drink but they refused.
“While
I was inside the vehicle, they stepped on my head and shot me on the neck but
God saved my life. The bullet didn’t go straight to the bone; it just brushed
off my skin. When I discovered that they didn’t want to let me go, I decided to
take my fate in my own hands. I was already bleeding and I knew that if they
left me there I would die. But if I managed to escape, I could be saved. So, I
decided that instead of me to die in pain, I would die honourably. I now
decided to fight them. Like I said earlier, I was blindfolded and my tied hands
tied, but I removed the blindfold. I asked them to let me go, that I would not
stay there with them again. They started fighting with me inside the bush.
“They
put me on their bike and brought me inside the town. They gave somebody sign to
go and check if the road was clear so that they could take me into their
warehouse where they keep their victims. So, I started fighting with them. In
the process, they tried to strangle me. I saw one of them holding a cutlass and
he asked his colleagues to make way so that he would cut me with the cutlass. I
jumped up and grabbed the cutlass; I pushed the knife towards his chest and he
left it for me. As I raised the cutlass up, all of them ran away. I used the
cutlass to cut the rope on my leg. Then they shot me on the leg and I ran into
the bush. They started shooting everywhere. They chased me from that point
(7.30pm) till about 10pm. We were running inside the bush. Because they already
knew the terrain, if I tried to dodge they would see me and go to block me
elsewhere. They were telling themselves that I was coming towards one
direction or another.”
Bruised
and battered, the businessman was eventually caught again by the kidnappers.
That was when Omii noticed the deep cut on his lips, in addition to other
injuries on other parts of his body, because as he was running within the village,
the abductors were shooting at him. Luckily, only a few bullets hit him, but
none of them touched his bones.
His
words: “So, when they caught me for the second time, they took me into their
warehouse. That was about 12am. But before then, they dropped me on the road
and hit me with cudgels. They asked me where I came from and I told them that I
came from Enugu. They asked me why I came to steal there and I told them I did
not come to steal anything. That I could not come to that village to steal
anything. That was when I discovered that some villagers had joined them in
chasing me because they told them that the person they were chasing was an
armed robber. There was an argument or confusion because I told them that I
was kidnapped while they said that I was a thief. They were arguing among
themselves. Another group with guns emerged and asked me to get up. I asked
them who they were and they said that they were vigilante people. I asked them
what they wanted to do and they said that I should follow them. I was still 100
per cent naked; they had removed all my clothes. The two guys took me inside a
house in the bush. I noticed that the same gun they came with to kidnap me was
the same gun they had with them, because they cut the butt of the gun to make
it shorter. It was the same people.
Miraculous
escape
“They
warned me not to attempt escaping because there was no way I could escape from
that place. Because of too much struggling, I was already tired. I slept off immediately
they locked the door and left me. It was a mud house but with high walls. In a
dream or what seemed like a dream, it was like someone tapped me and asked me
why I thought those guys were my friends? I woke up and didn’t see anybody but
the voice kept re-echoing and saying the same thing. I considered my situation
and concluded that there was no way I could escape from that place. The wall of
the house was so high and they blocked the window from the back. I tried to
sleep again in submission, saying after all I had bullet wounds there was no
way I was going to escape. As I wanted to sleep, the same voice came again and
told me that in some of the movies I had watched some actors were shot but
they used their last strength to escape while I was there wallowing in
self-pity. I now summoned courage to seek how to escape. My mind told me to try
the door and I pulled it with force. The door slacked and I pulled it again and
the door opened. I ran into the bush.
“They
told me that nobody had ever escaped from that place. One miraculous thing that
happened was that all the dogs around the place were sleeping when I escaped.
It was when I left that I noticed that they were dogs. I entered into the bush
and saw a very big wolf, it ran away. Immediately I left, I heard dogs barking.
Then they started shooting, meaning that they returned immediately I left. I
decided not to go straight to the road because I would be an easy catch. I
decided to walk through the bush until I saw a signboard belonging to a certain
church in Obingwa. At a time, I couldn’t walk again because they had shot my
leg and the pains were excruciating. I could hardly move again, so I lay on the
ground. But my mind told me that they could just walk in there, kill me and
walk away.
“I
struggled to enter into one uncompleted building of the church. Early in the
morning, about 5am, I saw women going to the market; I was shouting but they
didn’t hear me. Sometime later, I saw a man riding a motorcycle. I shouted and
told him to bring the police for me. He asked me what I was doing there and I
told him that kidnappers shot me and that I just managed to escape from them.
Meanwhile, I was still stark naked. But the man told me that policemen do not
come to that place. So, he left; he didn’t even look at me. After some minutes,
I saw another person riding a bicycle and I begged him to get some policemen
for me. He asked who I was and I introduced myself to him. I told him that I
escaped from kidnappers and that they shot me severally, so I could not stand
up. He said ok, went and invited the whole village. They came with tyres, logs
and different things, saying that I was a thief. They kept me there, asking me
all sorts of questions. They did not even allow me to explain anything. It was
the village head who came and asked them how they ever thought that this sort
of man will come to the village to steal palm fruits or cassava. I told the man
that I had an SUV, LJ Cruiscame and asked them how they er and Sienna, and the
man asked them how possible it was for me to leave all those things and come to
steal in the village. He told them to look at my skin; that I do not look like
a petty thief. Meanwhile, the kidnappers were running around the village in my
Sienna. Kidnapping was like an official business in that village, so they were
not hiding.
“The
man went to the traditional ruler and relayed his findings to him. The
traditional ruler sent the Bakassi Boys and when they came, I was still lying
down naked. They started shooting and everybody started running away. They did
their spiritual investigation or whatever they call it and gave me a clean bill
of health. They took me to Umuobiakwa police station in Obingwa. From there,
they took me to Central Police Station (CPS), Aba. I was still naked, so one
policeman removed him shirt and gave me. I just managed to use the shirt to
cover the vital place.
Police
in the mix
Omii
said that it was at the police that his people brought clothes for him. It
took the police time to launch an investigation into the matter; they were
rather busy making demands. By then his lawyer and many other people had converged
on the station, telling them that Omii was innocent. They told the police that
he was a victim of kidnapping but the police requested for money but he didn’t
have the amount they wanted. So they turned around to say that they had a
shootout with some armed robbers, and maybe Omii was one of the armed robbers.
At this point, his friend David Orafor, went to the soldiers who had given the
kidnappers a chase when the adduction took place. The army officer told them
that the matter was reported the previous day and that his men chased the
kidnappers until rain started falling and they couldn’t see the tyre marks
again. The officer took Omii’s friend to the Area Commander and he ordered that
he should be released to seek treatment. He was then taken to the teaching
hospital. Unfortunately, soon after the wounds were sutured, the hospital
staff went on strike. From there, Omii was taken to Living World Hospital.
Later he went overseas for surgery.
Today,
Omii strongly believes that Baba Ke who sold the land to him had a hand in the
travail that befell him. He told Sunday Sun: “I suspect Baba Ke because
the guy had been perpetrating so many evils. He once kidnapped a 10-month-old
boy and sold him. He was into many crimes but now he is dead. The family is
aware because I went to their house and told them that Baba Ke was involved.
He was killed in the village by fellow criminals he wanted to outsmart. They
cut off his head and left.”
Another
escape from death
The
kidnap incident was not the only time Omii had had a close shave with death. By
his own account, he fought with a massive cobra and killed it. Narrating his
encounter with the animal, Omii explained that sometime ago, he entered inside
a cave in his village on adventure but while coming out, a huge cobra had
blocked the entrance. As the cobra wanted to attack him, he removed his shirt
and threw it at the cobra. As the shirt covered the cobra’s head, he held it
and struck it against a stone continuously until the cobra died. There was
serious celebration in the village. The cobra was later cooked and feasted on
by Omii and his kinsmen.
BY
HENRY UMAHI (KINGHENRYSUN@YAHOO. COM)
Kidnappers Shot me and my Miraculous Survival and Escape
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Rating:
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