Nigerian Businessman Recounts Days Of Horror In Anambra Kidnappers’ Den, Narrates How Abductors Murdered Victims, Trafficked Human Organs
The two were held captive for a week without food or water, and the businessman claims that the government and security agencies did nothing to help them.
A businessman who was kidnapped alongside Catholic Reverend Father Nonso in Anambra State has shared a harrowing account of their ordeal.
The two were held captive for a week without food or water, and the businessman claims that the government and security agencies did nothing to help them.
In a leaked telephone conversation, the businessman alleged that the State Director of the Department of State Services told him that they were ready to work but lacked the funds to do so. He also criticised Governor Chukwuma Soludo for not taking action to address the state’s security challenges.
The businessman’s account is particularly disturbing, as he describes witnessing people being killed and their organs harvested and sold to traffickers.
He also claims that the Enugu State government helped track their location, but the police refused to rescue them.
This incident highlights the severe security issues plaguing Anambra State. According to reports, the state has experienced a surge in kidnapping and armed attacks, with many attributing the violence to poor governance and lack of effective security measures.
The businessman’s experience also raises concerns about corruption and the perceived lack of accountability within the security forces.
SaharaReporters reported on January 1, 2025 that the Spiritual Director of Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry, Uke, Anambra State, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Obimma, popularly known as “Father Ebube Muonso” narrated how he paid N1 million to mobilise the police to rescue a priest and colleague, Rev. Fr. Nonso, who was kidnapped and spent a week at his captors’ den in a forest.
Giving his eyewitness account, the businessman who spoke in Igbo said: “…when they shot these people, I realised that this is no longer a child’s play. You see people bleeding from gunshot, and you also see those whose organs are being harvested. You will hear them saying cut this side and cut the order side. You see them cutting people’s parts while they’re alive.”
He said he paid a ransom of N10.3 million and the Rev. Father paid over N20 million to regain his freedom. According to him, the kidnappers had wanted to release the Reverend Father but because they had a quarrel with Fr (Emmanuel) Obimma Ebube Muonso (parish priest in Dunukofia and the founder and head of Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry) on the phone, they decided to keep his friend priest to test his resolve.
He continued: “I put N10.3 million and I paid through my account but it is not about payment of ransom because there are people who paid money yet they were killed. Father paid over N20 million. They killed several people and there’s a well there where some people who were killed were thrown. They poured some chemicals inside the well.
“We were in their den with the Harmattan cold on December 17, 18 and 19, 2024. They had an altercation with Father Obimma Ebube Muonso and one would think that the kidnappers would be afraid of being tracked but they were not afraid because they knew that Anambra State doesn’t have adequate security.
“While they were talking with Father Ebube Muonso, the leader of the gang came and told the Rev Fr Nonso that he wanted to release him but he wanted to proof to Fr Ebube Muonso that they were not on the same level. He said they often see him but ignore him was because he is a Rev. Father but that will show him (Ebube Muonso). He even called their gang members in their various camps that if something happened, they should bring Ebube Muonso alive.”
He continued, “If you see these small children carrying guns; if you think that they are Yahoo boys (internet fraudsters), they are no longer into that. They are now into kidnapping. If you see these people, they’re carrying iPhone 13 like Yahoo boys. I was there and they were calling their girlfriends. We were there on the 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd of December – inside the bush with them. We didn’t go to the toilet, we didn’t eat and we didn’t bathe. We didn’t even brush our teeth. I didn’t know that it is possible for someone to stay for three days without going to the toilet. It was on the night of December 24 that I was brought out like they usually did while we were there. They would bring people out and say move. The next thing they would do was shoot the person.”
He stated that considering what he saw there, he was no longer thinking about his business.
“I no longer think of my business. I no longer think of my parents. This boy that has Dubai estate, you know he has been missing for over a month and there was no communication. So I was thinking: is this how people are being killed? If you see how body parts were being sold. There was a boy that wanted to escape, he told us one day when we were brought together that he had spent 21 days in the kidnapper’s den and that the person brought with him had been killed.”
The businessman stated that he slept beside the Rev father at night, adding they prayed for God’s intervention but at every turn, it would appear that God wasn’t going to answer their prayers.
Free At Last
But eventually, he and the cleric were allowed to go home.
He said, “We prayed intermittently and you don’t talk there. So they asked the priest to hold me and we were moving in the bush. They told us that they would put us in the trunk of Toyota Venza, and that wherever they stopped and opened the trunk of the vehicle, I should come out and drive the Venza home, along with the Rev father. I don’t know the owner of the Venza and I was asking myself whether I had come there to be gifted a Toyota Venza. I was also afraid because I had heard that there was someone who was burnt inside a car.
“So, they were going round the bush and when they got to a particular place, they stopped and opened the boot and asked me to take the key and drive the Venza home. They said there was enough fuel in it. Thereafter, they closed the boot, fired some shots and left. We drove for hours, looking for a way out of the bush. Before we got to Father’s parish, it was round 1 am on December 25 (Christmas Day).
“When we finally found a road, I told Father that we should go to my house in Awka but he said we should go to Umudioka, his parish. That was how we went there and fortunately Father Ebube Muonso and his team were in adoration. They had just finished praying for us.
“People fled when they saw how fast we drove. They took us to the altar there. From there, they took us upstairs where we took our bath.”
The businessman revealed how the family of the kidnapped member of the State House of Assembly representing Onitsha North called him to know whether he knew of his whereabouts.
“You know, that there was a House member that was kidnapped in Onitsha North; his people called me, asking whether I had any clue, I said I had no clue. They said the governor told them that there was nothing he could do. The wife of the man was crying on phone, begging to know if there anything I could tell them. The kidnappers had already asked for a ransom of N20 million and maybe they don’t know that he’s a lawmaker.
“Probably they didn’t know about the person and when they discovered, they stopped calling the relations. Anambra is a joke now. Do you know that a lawmaker called me and said that we are in trouble. He said there was no single tracker in Anambra State and that the governor was waiting for people coming from Abuja to track the location of the Rev father.
“So Father Ebube Muonso called the governor of Enugu State. I don’t know that the governor Enugu State is working but he doesn’t talk, so he stayed in Enugu and tracked where we were kept and it was Urum because while we were there, a plane would intermittently fly over us. I thought this was going on around Ihiala; I didn’t know it had reached Awka, the state capital.
“It wasn’t like we were kept in secret room but we were in the bush and they were running it like a well-structured organisation. They cooked. I was afraid that we could be poisoned. From Urum, you get to Achalla, and from there, you get to Igbariam. So the governor of Enugu told the police in Anambra that they should go in and rescue us. And the police in Anambra said they would not enter the bush.
“It was by the divine grace of God that we made it alive considering the way people were killed there. I discovered that what attracts them is ‘big’ vehicles. The way it is in Anambra now is for one to look for a small car to drive. They come out for operation between 7pm and 8:30pm and they have various camps.
“So it is risky to drive from 7 pm to 8:30 pm or 9 pm. The roads are always busy then and that is when they kidnap people. The best time to get home is 6 pm or 6:30 pm; you enter your house. If there’s something that made you to stay late in the night, you should wait till 11 pm to midnight before going home. At that time, they will not be in the road again.”
On how Rev Fr Nonso was kidnapped, the businessman said he was kidnapped while trying to buy fuel.
He said, “The priest who returned from America and hails from Ojoto, went out to buy fuel and after that he stopped at a block industry – he was the former head of St. Kizito, a Catholic school, so he was telling somebody that he would cook to entertain the children in the school. Suddenly, a vehicle arrived there and the occupants started shooting.
“He was confused as it appeared to him like a movie, maybe he didn’t understand that the security situation in Anambra had deteriorated, so the people with him ran away. They carried him with his car. My anger is that despite all the things happening in Anambra State, the police are not doing anything.
“State Director of Security Services otherwise known as Department of State Services (DSS) told me that they are willing to work but there’s no money. He told me that during the December period, there were squads sent across the states in the country. He regretted that those sent to stay in Anambra spent two days and the governor told them that he didn’t have money for fuel and they went back.”
The businessman revealed that when they went to Enugu State to thank the governor for his assistance, they were taken to a house where everything happening in Enugu State is being monitored. He wondered what the governor of Anambra state is doing with the allocations of Anambra state.
He said, “The whole tracking was done in the house and they even showed us where we were kept in the bush from the Enugu State Government House. At a point, they contemplated to deploy airstrike but Father Ebube Muonso was skeptical that they could kill innocent people in the process.
“We thanked the Enugu State Governor but Governor Soludo is toying with the people of Anambra State. It was by the divine grace of God that I went and came out alive. They collected my phone.”
When SaharaReporters contacted the Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Tochukwu Ikenga for his reaction, he simply said, “Thank you for the information.”
