A Nigerian Law School student, David Obiora, who was abducted on his way to Yola Campus, has narrated a harrowing account of beatings, starvation, and community-aided captivity.

Obiora also debunked the Nigerian police claims that the operatives rescued him and five other students from kidnappers in Benue State.

In an exclusive interview, Obiora, who hails from Anambra State, said he and others were kidnapped on July 20 along Zakibiam-Mukari Expressway after boarding an Al Dampulo Company Transport Limited vehicle from Onitsha en route to Yola.

“The road was blocked with sticks and tables. The driver tried to escape by turning, but the vehicle got stuck inside the bush. That was how the kidnappers caught us,” Obiora said.

gers were six law students while others were traders and travellers.

Obiora said they were tortured daily in captivity, fed only once a day, and forced to drink mud water.

“We paid N10 million each to be released,” he said, adding that they spent five gruesome days in the kidnappers’ den — from Saturday, June 26, to Wednesday, July 31.

Contrary to the narrative pushed by the police that they were rescued, Obiora insisted that the security operatives played no role in their freedom.

“No, the police didn’t rescue us. We paid ransom and we were released. The police were just scared the kidnappers might kill us. They didn’t come close,” he said.

He also dismissed the involvement of the Council of Legal Education, stating plainly that “there was no role they played.”

After their release, Obiora and his fellow victims trekked for hours through dense bush paths from Benue into Taraba before finally reaching a restaurant near a motor park, where they waited overnight for a transport manager who helped facilitate their trip to Yola.

He painted a chilling picture of the conditions in the kidnapper’s camp, stating that the entire local community was complicit in the crime.

“Elderly women cooked for us. Children watched us as we moved in and out to ease ourselves. Nobody tried to stop the evil—they were all part of it. It’s a community business,” Obiora said.

He identified the area as Jota community, inhabited by the Tiv ethnic group in Benue State.

One of the kidnappers, according to Obiora, openly bragged about being in the business for nine years, boasting of owning a Toyota Highlander and other cars, while his wife and children lived comfortably and attended school outside the forest.

Obiora said the mastermind behind the operation is a former soldier who fled the military and now uses his influence to settle corrupt personnel in the army and navy.

He said: “Even one of them told me that he has been in the business for nine years. He has not stepped out from that bush. He bought a Highlander for his wife.

“He bought another car too, but he can’t drive the car. His wife and children are somewhere living comfortably. The children are going to school.

“I think his wife is also going to school. So, I’m suggesting the army, the navy, air force should go in there and wipe the entire community and clear everything there because the kidnappers are using the community as a shield. Having known that the security agencies cannot just start coming to kill innocent civilians, so they use those communities as a shield.

“And secondly, their fear of security agencies coming there to kill innocent people also, they told us they don’t kill their kidnapped victims. They just collect ransom and go. They told me specifically that they don’t kill and that they are in partnership.

“They will even settle the army and settle the navy. In fact, the oga is a runaway soldier. He said he is a runaway soldier.

“So, he has so many weapons in his stead, in his house. So, he settles the army. He even has a jujuman from Kano that tells him if army is coming inside the bush and the jujuman will suppress the army.

“The jujuman will make sure the army doesn’t come forward. So, I suggest they drop air strikes there and clear everything there. That place should be a dry land.”

Calling for drastic government intervention, Obiora urged the Nigerian military to carry out airstrikes and clear the forested region completely.