By Capital Watch Media
A National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, member, Rofiat Lawal, who was abducted along the Benin-Ore Expressway on Tuesday, has revealed her captors threatened to force her into marriage and take her to Sokoto if her family failed to pay a ransom.
Lawal was on her way to her place of primary assignment in Oyo State from Edo State when the incident occurred.
The gunmen initially demanded ₦20m as ransom but later reduced it to ₦5m after negotiations.
“Around the Ore area, they stopped our vehicle with gunshots. I was sitting in the front when I saw six armed men. They asked everyone to lie down and took six of us into the bush,” Lawal said.
The abductors took the passengers’ valuables, including money and phones. Lawal’s NYSC uniform was also taken, with one of the kidnappers reportedly wearing it.
“They collected my ₦15,000 and other passengers’ money — some had between ₦600,000 and ₦1.2m. One of them wore my NYSC uniform,” she added.
The victims were forced to trek for seven hours on the first day, from 3 pm to 10 pm, before being allowed to rest.
They spent four days in captivity under harsh conditions.
“During the day, they made us sit in the forest. At night, we trekked. That was our routine for the entire period,” she recalled.
Lawal described how the older captives, mostly traders, were beaten.
She noted that she was not physically harmed but faced threats from the abductors.
One of them said he would marry me and take me to Sokoto if my family didn’t pay the ransom,” she said.
Her release came after her family paid a ₦1.1m ransom into an account reportedly linked to another kidnapped victim’s family.
“The total amount paid by all six of us varied. Some paid ₦2m, others ₦3m — it depended on the family’s ability to negotiate,” she stated.
During captivity, the victims were fed sparingly with garri brought by the kidnappers.
“They carried a cooler filled with garri. That’s what they gave us occasionally,” she said.
Lawal has since appealed to the NYSC authorities for time off to recover from the trauma and seek medical attention.
“The NYSC State Coordinator and my Local Government Inspector have reached out to me. I hope they grant me some time to rest,” she said.
Despite her ordeal, Lawal remains committed to the NYSC programme.
“I don’t regret serving. What happened could have happened to anyone — not just corps members,” she concluded.
Efforts to reach the NYSC authorities for further comments were ongoing at the time of this report.
