"Sometimes, They Didn’t Give Us Food Or Allow Us Bathe" - Freed Lagos School Boys Narrate Ordeal

The six freed pupils of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe who were abducted at their school in May, have narrated their ordeal at the hands of their abductors.

The children were dropped at a creek in Ondo State on Friday after spending 64 days in captivity, has narrated the ordeal in an interview with PUNCH.

One of them, Ramon Isiaq, who spoke with Punch, said the kidnappers exposed he and his colleagues to rain at the camp where they kept and they were fed with poorly cooked food and that they were only allowed to bathe once in a week.

He said;

“After they kidnapped us that day (May 25), we were kept around our school, while a (police) helicopter was patrolling the area. They asked us to hide in a bush so that people in the helicopter would not see us. In the midnight, they sent a boat to pick us. 

“The following day, they gave us spaghetti. We ate the same thing in the afternoon and evening. They told us that some security men were sent to fight them, but they killed the men. They threatened that we would die there. 

“We were seven in an uncompleted building. The seventh person is a man that was looking after us. It was a bad experience. We didn’t enjoy our sleep. We always prayed that rain would not fall. If rain fell, it would beat us. 

Sometimes, they didn’t give us food; at times they gave us food once in a day. At other times, they wouldn’t give us food at all. We ate together. We bathed once or twice in a week.”

He added that at a point they complained about their maltreatment to the leader of the gang.

“After some time, I met with their boss called ‘Chief’ or ‘Chairman’ that we did not enjoy the food they cooked for us and that we should be allowed to prepare our food by ourselves. 

They didn’t allow us to move around…”