We had close shave with death, police didn’t rescue us – Kidnapped law student

After six days of uncertainty and fear, David Obiorah, the six law students kidnapped along Wukari-Zaki-Biam expressway, Benue State, on their way to the Nigerian Law School in Adamawa State re-gained their freedom.

DAILY POST reports that July 26, 2025, was a Black Saturday for David Obiorah, Ernest Okafor, Fabian Ogbuka, Philip Nwamma, Okechukwu Obadiegwu and Emmanuel Obalem. With a mix of emotions, relief, gratitude and still trying to process the trauma, one of the victims, David Obiora recounts the harrowing experience in an exclusive interview with Gift Oba. He shares his fears and moments of strength.

Can you tell us about yourself?

My name is David Obiorah, I’m from Anambra State and currently running a program at the Nigerian Law School, Yola campus.

What actually happened?

We were traveling from Onitsha, Anambra State to Yola campus of the Nigerian Law School in Adamawa State on the 26th of July 2025, when the incident happened. We were kidnapped in between checkpoints of both the Army and the Police, at about 9pm along Wukari-Zaki-Biam expressway, Benue State, around a town called Jootar.

The kidnappers mounted roadblocks and withdrew back into the bush. When we slowed down, they hijacked the bus and took us into the deep forest. It’s about 20km away from the main road.

They were up to 10 men, four of them had AK-47, while the remaining used cutlasses and daggers.

What was your initial thought and feeling when this happened?

When they hijacked the bus, at first, I thought it was Fulanis as usual, but their appearance and tone was of Tiv language, that is Benue state. So, I was scared, it has never happened to me, I felt we were going to be killed. But then, they told us that they weren’t going to kill any of us, so, felt relieved to an extent.

How many of you were taken, and what was the journey like to their hideout?

We were 13 commuters in the bus plus the driver, six law students, two male adults, two female adults, and three underage children.

They drove our bus into the bush and while going, the bus got stuck. So, they called for backup and their members brought in five motorcycles, carried us from one location to another in the middle of the night; then we were separated from some of the captives, which included our driver.

The rest of us were moved to the second location inside the bush and ordered to enter into a hut.

On getting to their hideout what did you notice?

When we entered the hut, we saw four other people who said they had spent 22 days (3 weeks and 1 day) there before our arrival. They include a woman who is a non-teaching staff at the Federal University Wukari, a youth corper named Dauda Wisdom, a pastor who just completed his surgery from Otukpo Benue and a Hausa man, I don’t have his details.

But the next day, they released one law student, two male teenagers and one female adult, alongside her little child.

Was there any specific event or moments that stood out during your captivity?

The leader of their gang is called Matthew, he’s either a dismissed soldier or a runaway soldier. They are all Tiv members, although they have one or two Fulanis, but those ones don’t talk.

The community is aware of what they (the kidnappers) do. They subdued the community, the elderly, the children, the entire community is involved because they don’t talk.

In our presence they cocked guns in front of little children, children between the ages of 2-3 years who are supposed to be in school, but no, they test-run guns in front of them and then bring us out for all to see.

The women are the ones cooking for us, it’s the food they cook that we all eat, including them.

What was the experience like?

The experience was terrible, we ate once a day, the food wasn’t healthy either. The water we drank was mud water, you can’t even use it to wash a car, and it started causing reactions to my body.

We were beaten daily, we were beaten every hour, with sticks to call our people for ransom, it was horrible, my body still aches and I’m still receiving treatment. They had AK-47 guns, and they guarded where we were held hostage.

“If you run, we shoot, cooperate with us and go, pay your N10 million and then you can go”, that’s the rules they kept singing.

What went through your mind after hearing all of these?

Going through my mind, I knew I would be free, but at one point I was scared that I wasn’t going to be freed. After requesting for N10 million, they asked for another N200,000 and the time frame was within 5 minutes.

They started shouting, “pay within 5 minutes and join those getting freed”. The tension was high; I was calling my brother to call people that could help us raise the money.

How did you regain freedom?

The money was sent; they claimed the additional N200,000 was for our transportation, but it was just to extort us the more.

That Thursday night we were freed, it was raining heavily; we were blindfolded and went through thick bushes. They took us on a bike and dropped us somewhere I can’t really say, after removing our blindfolds, they asked us to walk through a particular path in the bush, saying we would find ourselves by the main road. We did just that and trekked for more than 4 hours inside the forest. We kept going until we saw a streetlight and that was how we came out.

What were your fears at that moment?

My fear was not to encounter Fulani people or any other bad people because that place was lonely and isolated, it’s a no-man’s land.

How are you holding up?

I am holding up, but I lost my valuables and that made me worried, but in all I give God the glory. I’m no longer thinking much about it. I try to be strong, but I still think of my valuables, including all my documents that I lost. I doubt I would be able to recover them again, but still to God be the glory.

I have moved on by going for medication and continuing my studies. I just need to recover all my misplaced documents. That’s what is bothering me. As for my studies, I think I would bounce back by the grace of God.

What’s your message to the federal government?

I have no message for the federal government, I have nothing to tell them, let them continue to play politics with security issues.

Any thank you message to the Nigeria police?

Our families paid the ransom; the government did not pay anything nor did the police come to rescue us. We paid and we were released. The rule was pay your money and you can go.

We came out from the kidnappers den around 12 midnight and went to a park where we met with the manager. We asked him to give us a bus to bring us back to Yola, we didn’t even have plans to involve any police, we only wanted to go back to school without publicity or anything.

It was the manager that called the police, they arrived and then started claiming that they had rescued us. The Police did not rescue us, we paid and we were freed.

We had close shave with death, police didn’t rescue us – Kidnapped law student