The only guard doses off after so much alcohol. The five abductees then unchained themselves and ran until they reached Nariya where they reported to the police station.
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Five farmers, including two teenage siblings yesterday, August 29, escaped from their abductors around a forest near the Nariya area of Kaduna State.
They had spent 24 days in captivity before the breakthrough.
On August 5, TheNiche reported how bandits struck the Kaduna Airport road around the Afaka area of the state and abducted many farmers, including the two siblings.
It was gathered that the bandits, just two in number with one bearing an AK47 and the other wielding a cutlass, carried away the farmers, at least ten of them by foot to an unknown location.
Some of the farmers, however, managed to escape during the long walk. The others that remained, five of them, were herded to a forest along the Nariya community.
TheNiche gathered that the two siblings whose mother travelled out of the state to visit their father, a pastor in Kebbi State, joined other neighbours resident around the Mando area of Kaduna State to help their mother with her farm work. Then the bandits struck and ferried them away.
READ ALSO
Abia woman assaulted over alleged witchcraft rescued
Initial negotiation with the bandits led to the payment of N500,000 for the release of the two siblings. But the bandits demanded two motorcycles, the type specially built for rugged terrain including forests.
The family asked for the cost of each and was told that it is N800,000 per one. With the pittance in contribution coming from friends and families, it was nowhere near the money to purchase the bikes. The bandits later added to the family trauma by issuing a three-day ultimatum otherwise the boys would be killed.
Then suddenly, last night, before the deadline, the father of the boys received a call about 10pm from his kids that they had escaped, that they were around the Nariya area of Kaduna State. The father advised that they locate the nearest police station, which they did.
How they escaped
TheNiche was told that the bandits run shifts of either two or one person bearing cutlass to watch over the five chained abductees. A massively huge fellow had been keeping watch over them in the last couple of days until yesterday when he was changed by another bandit who spent the night drinking.
After becoming dizzy with so much liquor, the drunk bandit wrapped himself in a bed sheet, then slept off.
One of the abductees managed to extricate his hand from the chain around his wrist, and helped the others to do the same. Then they collected the cutlass away from the drunken bandit and chained him in his sleep. They started running to no specific destination until they cited a telecommunication mast. On getting there, they made a phone call with one of the phones in their possession, located a police station and reported the incident there. The father later arrived at the police station to take his children home.