Sola Shittu, Benin
commisioner of
police [1]
Prof Christopher Akujieze was in the lecture room with about
five PhD students on the ground floor of the Faculty of Science
building at the University of Benin, Edo State, when our
correspondent arrived to interview him.
After the teaching session, the quiet lecturer, who is the Head,
Department of Geology, came out to meet a group of young men
waiting for him outside the class. He had a brief meeting with them
and then led our correspondent to his office on the same floor of
the building.
After few walks, we arrived at the entrance to his door. As he
opened the door, he passed some instructions to his students and
then dropped the load in his hand on a chair.
“Yes, geology is a hazardous profession because of the fieldwork
and everything. Or is it easy for somebody to abandon their home,
to leave their safe habitat to explore, return to the laboratory
and then quantify?” he queried.
Few days ago, 15 students and three lecturers of the department
on their way to Akoko-Edo part of the state for fieldwork–led by
Akujieze were kidnapped by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
That day around 5pm when the kidnappers struck, the sun was
already setting but the scorching heat was biting. The students and
lecturers were by the roadside on Igarra road after Ikpesi in
Akoko-Edo. Tired and famished, with bottles of water in their
hands, they had hoped to retire to the camp where Akujieze was
waiting for them.
Our correspondent visited UNIBEN to speak with Akujieze few days
after the release of the victims, but he refused to talk about the
incident, stating he needed permission from the university’s
vice-chancellor.
But one of the students, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said she had taken a walk down the road away from the bus while
others were waiting for the driver when the incident occurred. She
said it was not up to five minutes when she left her colleagues
that she received a phone call from one of them, saying, “We have
been kidnapped.”
The student told Saturday PUNCH she initially
thought it was a joke but when she started calling others, it
turned out to be true. She said she wondered if she was dreaming
because she had just left them not quite long then. The student
said she ran back to the road only to discover that her colleagues
and teachers were not there.
She stated, “The bus driver was with another student watching
from a distance how the armed men rounded up my colleagues and our
lecturers and marched them to the bush. Immediately, the driver and
the student ran to a vigilante checkpoint some distance away to
report the incident. Soon, the report of the incident got to the
head of the vigilance group in Igarra, Mr Ibukun Dogo, who promptly
mobilised his men and some hunters to the forest after informing
the Otaru of Igarra.”
Speaking about the incident, Dogo said, “On that day, my men who
were on the road called me to inform me about the incident. They
said a man with a school bus reported that some students and their
lecturers were kidnapped.
“I told them to give the phone to the driver and we spoke. The
driver told me that four armed men kidnapped the students but he
was lucky to escape because he was far away from them when the
incident happened.
“He said they went out to survey and were about returning when
the abductors took their people away. I told the driver to lead my
men to the spot so they could trace them immediately.”
Dogo said when the vigilantes and hunters got to the scene, they
saw some hand towels belonging to some of the students apparently
dropped on the ground as they were being marched to the bush. He
added that they immediately began search in the forest while
waiting for the police to arrive.
HERO VIGILANTE & HRH Otaru
Saiki
Speaking about the development, the
Otaru of Igarra, Emmanuel Saiki II, said when information got to
him about the kidnap of the UNIBEN students and their lecturers, he
felt it would be an embarrassment not only to the university but
also the entire country.
“We quickly sent the hunters and the vigilantes into the bush to
capture the kidnappers. Luckily, we were able to rescue the
students and their lecturers. When the kidnappers saw that the
vigilantes were chasing them with gunfire, they hurriedly left
their victims and ran away,” he said.
The head of hunters in Igarra, Anthony Omokhudu, said it was
during the process of exchange of gunfire that the kidnappers left
their victims and fled “because we were already close to them.”
Meanwhile, Omokhudu said there had been an influx of Fulani
herdsmen into the Akoko-Edo forest lately.
“You know we in Akoko-Edo are the immediate neighbours to the
Yoruba. We speak Yoruba and bear Yoruba names. What we noticed is
that herdsmen camps are increasing in the forest. A camp can take
as much as 100 huts. We noticed six new camps from January till
date. We have been able to remove five; it remains one now,” he
said.
Also, Dogo said in January, a trailer load of about 300 Fulani
men was intercepted by his men and sent them out of Akoko-Edo
because of perceived security threat.
He said, “It was around 11:30 pm sometime in January when I
received information about a trailer load of herdsmen in town.
Immediately, I called my boys and some youths and we moved to the
place.
“When we got there, we counted them and they were around 300.
They came with food items and other things. We interrogated them
and they said they came to reside in Igarra. They said they had
been to Sasaro village but they were chased away.
“We told them to enter their truck and leave Igarra but they
said two more trucks were on the way. We said they should call the
trucks and send them back immediately. That night, we chased them
out of Igarra.”
One of the rescued students, who also spoke to our correspondent
on condition of anonymity, said they were grateful to the
vigilantes and hunters who made their escape from the kidnappers
possible. She said it was the exchange of gunfire with the
kidnappers that got them (kidnappers) confused, so they left them
and ran away.
She said, “There were seven of them. Some with guns and others
with machetes. They told us to lie down. Suddenly, the ones with
guns started getting violent. They took our three lecturers who
wore reflective jackets. Prior to that time, they had seized our
phones and money. At first, they picked me, but when we were going,
they told me to go back.
“While I was going back, I noticed that the herdsmen were
already beating some of my colleagues. One was hit with a
sledgehammer. At that moment, two other kidnappers were watching
those of us on the ground. When two of us saw an opportunity to
escape, we ran to the road, took a motorcycle and went to the
police station to make a report. The police told us to pay money
before writing a statement.
“When we eventually took them to the scene, they said they could
not enter the bush because they were policemen from Auchi and that
police from Igarra would be angry if they saw them. We turned back
and on our way, we saw some vigilantes who helped us.”
The rescued victim said one of her colleagues taken far into the
bush by the kidnappers narrated how they were beaten as they were
led by the kidnapers to the bush.
She said, “My friend told me that inside the bush, they
encountered a man bathing in the river who’s a vigilante and that
got their abductors really disturbed.
“The vigilante was the one who alerted his colleagues to their
location. When the vigilantes were moving closer to us, they
started exchanging gunfire and that got the kidnappers disorganised
and they separated the male students from the females. It was in
that commotion that they escaped.
“All of us –15 students and three lecturers–eventually arrived
at the camp around 12am. Our HoD (Akujieze) was standing in the
rain making calls to reach everyone of us. He was really disturbed.
It was even the vigilantes who helped to locate one of the male
students in the forest who missed his way. The vigilantes really
helped us.”
Commenting on the development, the state Commissioner of Police,
Mr Lawan Jimeta, said immediately he was informed of the incident,
he deployed the tactical team to the scene.
Although he didn’t speak much about the incident because the
case was still under investigation, Jimeta, added that they were
able to rescue the students and the lecturers.
Jimeta said, “If something had happened to them (the victims),
it would have been a disaster, but we were able to rescue them.
Some suspects were arrested by the joint tactical team and the
Divisional Police Officer. Investigation is still going on to
determine the culpability of the people that were arrested in
connection with the incident.”
References
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commisioner of police
(igarra.com.ng)
