LAGOS SEPTEMBER 3RD (URHOBOTODAY)-A teenage secondary school graduate residing in Oghara, a town in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State, had closed for work on a Wednesday night in August when two gun-wielding men kidnapped her.

Even though the men, whose intention appeared sinister, eventually let her go, the teenage girl no longer feels safe in the town.

‘I THOUGHT THEY WERE SOLDIERS’

This teenage girl (name withheld for security reasons) told FIJ that the incident happened around 10:00 pm on August 16 while she was waiting to board a motorcycle home.

She said that she took a temporary job to keep herself occupied and support her family pending when she would gain admission into a tertiary institution.

“After I closed from work that day, I went outside to look for a bike that would take me home. While I was waiting, three men stopped by and one of them asked me where I was going to, so I told him my destination,” she explained.

“He now asked me to board his bike so that his bike man will take me to where I was going to based on what was going on in the town. The town was hot [volatile] and they were killing people anyhow, so I obeyed.

“I thought he and his friends were soldiers because they were putting on soldier uniforms but, when I boarded the bike, he followed suit. I was asked why he followed me to sit on the same bike, and his reply was ‘if you talk or shout, I will kill you with my gun’. They were with guns.”

 ‘WE HAVE CAPTURED YOU’

The girl revealed that she was taken to a place called Cattle Market that night where the men told her she had been captured.

“They asked me to come down from the bike but I refused and the other one was telling me that they had captured me already. So, I came down from the bike and I was begging them to release me,” she told FIJ.

“One of them was telling me that I was not going anywhere. He said, if he released me, I would inform the police and they will lose a lot of money.

“One of them was making a phone call, telling the person on the phone that they had captured one girl and they were ready to kill me so I was begging them seriously.”

She said one of them decided to let her go after some time but this decision did not sit well with the other men as they kicked against the plan to release her.

“Later on, they said what they wanted to use rejected me but I did not understand what they meant. To cut the long story short, they released me and asked their bike man to take me to a junction,” the victim narrated.

“The bike man dropped me at an Oando filling station. When I came down from the bike, I started running. Then I saw one bike man on the road. I stopped him and told him what happened to me and he took me to my house.”

The teenage girl said she got home around 11:26 pm on that Wednesday.

On the security situation in the town, she had this to say: “In Oghara, we don’t have a tight security. People are just being kidnapped and killed anyhow. Even the police are not doing enough.”

Meanwhile, FIJ found multiple cases which showed that the teenage girl’s encounter with the gunmen was not an isolated incident. Rather, it mirrored the prevalent insecurity that had been allowed to fester in Ethiope West LGA.

Three suspected kidnappers were beaten to death in the area in May 2021. Just a few months before this incident, seven people had been abducted along the Sapele/Oghara axis.

Amid the numerous security issues recorded in Oghara in 2022, Uyi Iluobe, a medical doctor reportedly lost his life to aggrieved relatives of one of his patients on December 31. However, the police later claimed he was killed by cultists.

The town has also seen instances of kidnapping incidents this year. Just last month, the state police foiled a kidnap attempt and rescued the victim following a tip-off from concerned residents.

‘HIGH CRIME RATE TO BLAME FOR INSECURITY,’ SAYS RESIDENT

“The high level of Yahoo (cybercrime), cultism, and substance and drug abuse are to blame for the insecurity. People are ready to commit crimes just to survive”.

Those were the words of another Oghara resident, who wishes to remain unnamed. He told FIJ that he had once been kidnapped in Oghara, not because he moved with the wrong company but, because the perpetrators were only looking for money to survive.

Though he refused to comment further on his kidnapping experience, he said residents must learn to protect themselves by being security conscious and avoiding suspicious gatherings.

Also, according to this resident, even though the police were trying their best to tackle insecurity, the ratio of security personnel in Oghara was not in tandem with the thousands of residents of the town.

“Residents should understand that there is nobody to secure them. They have to secure themselves first,” he said.

“Oghara should have at least a population of a hundred thousand people. The ratio of the security personnel, are they even up to 500? Residents have to just protect themselves.”

WE ARE TRYING OUR BEST —POLICE

When FIJ contacted Bright Edafe, the Delta State Police public relations officer, to speak on the worrisome security situation in Oghara, he said that the police was trying its best to fight crime and insecurity.

“We have been able to rescue kidnapped victims and arrested suspected kidnappers. For people to say the police are not doing anything about it is not the best. We are doing our best and will continue to do our best,” Edafe told FIJ on Saturday.

“Last time I checked, we have not complained to anybody that we lack the infrastructure or capacity to go after criminals. In the entire country, Delta State is highly rated when it comes to crime fighting.

“Residents should not hesitate to report cases to the police. And, when they report these cases to us, they don’t have to pay anything before we take actions. In fact, the Commissioner for Police (CP) warned police officers not to demand payment from residents who report issues to us.”

Abimbola Abatta is a reporter with FIJ writing reports in partnership with Report for the World which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.

Foundation For Investigative Journalism

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