A reverend sister and year three student of Niger Delta University, Ammassoma, Bayelsa State, Mary Okoli, has said her abductors blindfolded her for 15 days and fed her with bread and butter all through the period.
Okoli, who was abducted on May 21, 2015, along Amassomma-Yenagoa Road, Bayelsa State, said her experience in the hands of her captors was gory.
The reverend sister was rescued after 15 days in an uncompleted building on Itu Road, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, by operatives of the Department of State Security Service, Bayelsa Command, on June 6.
Okoli said she fell into the trap of the kidnappers on the fateful day while waiting for a vehicle to board to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, from Amassomma.
She said on the day in question, there was scarcity of commercial vehicles until three men in a private car offered her a lift.
She said she was happy she found help, but unknown to her, they were kidnappers.
Okoli, while narrating her ordeal in the hands of her captors amid sobs, said, “On the fateful day, there was scarcity of commercial vehicles. I was waiting for a bus to board. I had been stranded at the bus stop for hours.
“Suddenly, I saw three guys who offered to help me. I gladly entered. When I entered into the vehicle, I lost my senses. I did not know where I was again.
“It was long after the guys told me that I was in Akwa Ibom State. I was held captive, blindfolded, for 15 days. It was only when they wanted to feed me that they removed the blindfold. Initially, there were four persons, later they increased to six. They started to interrogate me to know who I really was. I told them I was a reverend sister and a student at NDU. They told me I was kidnapped.
“Throughout the period I was in their den, they fed me with bread and butter. Even when I did not like the meal, they said I was on my own. One of them even told me that if I refused to eat what I was offered and died, they would throw me into the bush.
“Every time I was always crying and praying, begging them to let me go. All my pleas and entreaties fell on deaf ears. Though they did not demand sex from me, they made me to pass through psychological trauma.”
The 24-year-old reverend sister said on an occasion, they demanded that I gave them numbers of people they could reach for her ransom, which I did without hesitation.
Briefing journalists in Yenagoa on Wednesday on how Okoli was rescued, State Director, DSS, Laasan Baba, said the victim was rescued by cracking operatives of the service on June 6.
Source: Punch
