by Zara Mustapha

A female evangelist may be living according to the passage in the Holy Bible which said “love your enemies and pray for them” after going through an ordeal every woman would dread.

The woman (names withheld) recounted her experience in the hands of some unknown men who did not only hold her against her will but repeatedly gang raped her around Ogijo area of Ikorodu Lagos.

The lady evangelist left everyone speechless after she publicly told two of her abductors who were later arrested by the Lagos State Police command that she had forgiven them for their sins.

The brave evangelist who spent nine days in the hands of her abductors even went further to lay hands on her rapists, prayed for them and advised them to turn a new leaf in other to make heaven at the end of their time on earth.

According to reports:

A Lagos based female evangelist (names witheheld), recently kidnapped and gang raped by her abductors around Ogijo area of Ikorodu Lagos, left everyone speechless when she told two of her abductors arrested by the Lagos State Police command that she had forgiven them for their sins.

The traumatized evangelist who is still trying to come to terms with her nine days despicable experience in the hands of nine kidnappers, even went further to lay her hands on the arrested suspects, advising them to turn new leaves in order to make heaven at the end of their sojourn on earth.

The woman, as gathered, was abducted early this month and kept in the kidnapper’s den; an uncompleted building in Ogijo, Ikorodu, alongside other kidnapped victims, among whom was a Briton. It was gathered that her abductors tore her clothes into shreds and left her in her nude throughout her nine days stay, where they had her in turns and at any given time.

While the dehumanizing act was on, one of the kidnappers reportedly put a call through to the evangelist’s husband, demanding for N20 million ransom. But her husband reportedly dropped the sum of N2 million in an undisclosed location the fourth day but did not have his wife released to him as expected.

Escape at last

On the ninth day, eight members of the kidnap gang drove out in two vehicles to collect a ransom of N25 million, for the release of the Briton, at Caterpillar bus-stop, Ojota, leaving one of them, (Emeka) behind, to guard their victims. Moments later, the armed kidnapper was said to had gone to the exhausted evangelist to ease his sexual urge. But he got more than what he bargained for as the exhausted woman, in what could be described as a miracle, flung him away, and he hit his head on the brick wall.

According to the woman evangelist who initially bluntly refused to speak to anyone, other than the arrested kidnappers and police, “ I do not know where the strength came from. But as he was about penetrating… I pushed him and he hit his head on the wall and passed out. Without caring whether I was naked or not, or whether I would be shot in the process, I rushed out of the uncompleted building shouting for help. To my surprise, I discovered that the building was even located among residential buildings.”

It was learnt that one of the curious sympathizers who gathered round her, gave her a wrapper to cover her nakedness.

Back inside the uncompleted building, the kidnapper, on regaining consciousness, reportedly scaled the fence and fled, abandoning his AK 47 rifle, apparently afraid that his escapee could have blown the lid. An irate mob stormed the building later, where the Briton was rescued and the duo taken to the Area N Command, Ijede.

Meanwhile, the rest members of the gang who had earlier gone to collect the ransom for the release of the Briton at Ojota, met their waterloo at the designated point of receipt.

Unknown to them, operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, who got wind of their escapades, intercepted them, resulting in a gun duel which forced the kidnappers to abandon their loot and escaped.

One of them identified as Emeka was, however, arrested and he took the operatives to their hideout from where their victims were discovered to have been taken to Area N Command, Ijede. Police sources told Crime Guard that Emeka’s confessional statement led to the arrest of another suspected member of the gang known as Ikechukwu Ibe.

In his confessional statement, Emeka exonerated himself from the gang rape,saying: “ I could not do it because she kept shouting the name Jesus! Besides, when I discovered she was married, I refused to take part. I even told my colleagues to let her be, since her husband had already paid N2 Million. It was Sam, Innocent, Ikechukwu, Ugo and the rest that raped her. She was kept permanently naked to allow them easy access.

Sam is our leader while Ikechukwu is his deputy. Ugo is the messenger and ‘pointer’. What he does is to identify our victim after which we would intercept the vehicle. My job is to alight from our operational vehicle, get the victim inside before zooming off. At times we kidnap our victims through information from their drivers,” he said.

One AK 47 and one pump action rifle were reportedly recovered by the policemen at the kidnappers den.