One of the victims of billionaire kidnapper, Chukwudubem Onwuamadike, a.k.a Evans, Chief Donatus Dunu, who is the Managing Director of Lagos-based Maydon Pharmaceutical Company, has narrated how he escaped from the kidnappers’ den.
Dunu was kidnapped near his office on February 14, 2017 and his escape sparked a chain of events that led to the fall of the dreaded kidnap gang.
According to him, he was sold into the hands of the criminals by one of his pharmacists, Emeka, who even wanted him dead for his inability to provide a one million euros ransom.
Duru’s escape came after arrangement had been concluded that he would be killed that Friday evening.
Part of his long narrative with Vanguard reads, “It was on Friday night that my miracle happened. Way back, for the 90 days period of my captivity, I was trying to remove that iron from my leg without success, but that night around 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m., something asked me to get up and I got up and prayed.
“After that, the voice said to me that I should try opening that padlock which I did. I squeezed small size of the bed spread and passed it through the padlock and pulled it with little effort once, and the padlock opened.
“I said to myself, God, if I go and these people catch me, I will die, and if I remain here till daybreak, I would also die. So, the best thing is that, let me go and try it. It was God that opened this padlock, because I know that it wasn’t my personal power. That God will lead me out.
“Before then, I had begged them to be leaving the door linking my room to the parlour open so that I will be getting fresh air from there. Luckily, there was light that night and there was curtain and linen, so I made sure that the inside of my room was darker than the parlour so that even if they opened the curtain and looked inside, they would not see me.
“There were two of them sleeping at the parlour and because there was light that night, I couldn’t step on anyone of them. I said to my God, I will go; I will go. “I left for the parlour, from there to the kitchen. There, I saw another burglary at the kitchen door and I concluded that I could not open it and had to go back through the parlour to my dark room again while those people were still sleeping. I carried the iron and put it back on my legs but didn’t lock it again. One mind said I should go again, I should go and try, I got up again went through the parlour yet, they did not notice, then I closed the back door.
“Luckily, the wooden door that leads outside was not locked while the burglary was locked at the middle. The upper bolt and the down ones were just held down. When I pushed the upper bolt and the down one, the burglary opened and I now went outside their compound. I saw their gate, I turned the other side and I saw something like ladder resting on the fence.
“Their fence had broken bottles on top of it but at that point where the ladder was, the broken bottles were not there. That was where I climbed the fence, stepped my foot and jumped to the other compound.
“While inside that compound, I knocked at the door of a flat, one man and a woman came out. I told them that, I was a kidnap victim being kept in the other compound; I just managed to escape now, please help me.
“The man said, “Mr. Man get away from this compound before I call the police or vigilante for you” and I responded, “please call the police.” The man and his wife went back to sleep, leaving me there alone. All of a sudden, everywhere became quiet again.
“One mind told me that I should go somewhere and hide till day break, which I did. Not up to ten minutes that I left to hide, my abductors now opened their gate looking for me everywhere with their motorcycles. I was in my hideout praying to God to save my life. I was there till daybreak. I was looking like a mad person.
“For three months, I had not shaved, everywhere was white, and I was only putting up a dirty boxer that I had worn for the past 90 days without washing. When those couple woke up and saw me, they were surprised and as he wanted to raise alarm, I said no, these people there don’t let them know I am here. I said to him, “please, sir; can you just put me inside your booth and drive me away from here?” He said no …he was not going to do that, that I should wait here. He now said he was going to call the chairman of the estate.
“After about 45 minutes, they came back. One young boy that should be above 20 years came with something like a plastic conduit wiring and started chasing me away that, I should go out of the compound and he continued calling me a thief.
“There was this uniformed security personnel there, he hit me on the leg and I fell down. I was injured while jumping down from the fence. I now walked out of the compound to one school very close to my abductor’s gate. I was there as people gathered.
“I told them that, if these people come and see me here, they would kill me, this is how much I have offered them, that I’m not a thief but they insisted that I should wait until the estate chairman came. I asked what if they come with gun and all of you will run away and they will kill me.
“Luckily, one young guy came and listened to me and asked if I could give him my wife’s number? I gave it to him, he called and the number did not go through. I then gave him my cousin’s number and he got him on phone. So, my cousin told him my story and he was now convinced.
“From there, we took a bike to the express, from where we entered a bus. While inside the bus, people were just staring at me. What they used to blindfold me was a singlet, for ninety days, there was nothing like seeing the sun, so my body turned white. When we got to Idimu police division, we did not spend up to 20 minutes when my brother came.”
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