The news that ritualists and kidnappers now prowl the streets of Akure, the Ondo State capital, in unmarked taxis seems to be true after all as it took divine intervention for 28-year-old Taiwo Ariyo, an apprentice, to escaped from their claws recently.
Though Ariyo lived to tell the gory story, but she has scars and wounds and serious injuries to show for her narrow escape.
It is said that the abductors usually defraud their victims or use them for sinister purposes.
Ariyo, who was not left without serious injuries inflicted on her by her abductors – three men pretending to be the taxi driver and passengers – on Sunday night.
The victim, who is now receiving treatment at the State Specialist Hospital, Akure, has multiple injuries on different parts of her body.
Narrating her ordeal, Ariyo explained: “I was coming from Iye-Oma along Alagbaka area in Akure where I had gone to visit a friend on Sunday at about 7pm. I waved down this particular taxi, of which I told the driver I was going to Ijomu Junction.
“When I got into the taxi, I met two other male passengers at the back seat.
“When we were about to get to ijomu Junction, they refused to stop.
“When I said I had got to my destination, that was when they wound up the glass and sped off.
“When I began to scream, one of them sitting beside me slapped me and shouted at me to shut up.
“They then drove me to Ijare, where the driver stopped and I realised he went to open the booth of the car and I heard clattering of irons as if he was searching for something.
“After a while, he called the one that slapped me and at a point I did not see that one again and the same driver called the other one sitting with me in the car and they began to discuss.
“When I realised they were engrossed in their discussion I thought they will hurt me, I then opened the door and took to my heels and they gave me a hot chase.
“I ran from that spot in Ijare to Oke Odu area, close to a drinking joint before I hit my feet against a stone and fell.
“It was when I fell that they caught up with me and the one that drove used a spanner to hit me on my chest, hit me on my forehead.
“The third attempt I used my hand to cover my head and it hit me on my arm.
“It was at this point a car was driving towards us then I began to scream thief, kidnappers.
“So they stopped to see where the car was driving towards.
“That was when I seized that opportunity to get out of their grip and ran for my dear life.
“At this point, I was already bleeding.
“I was covered with my blood.
“I eventually ran into the drinking joint where I begged the people I met there for help and told them I was abducted and wounded by my abductors.
“That was when one man got up and carried me on his back and promised to take me to wherever I was going.
“At this point, my phone rang and it was my friend, Kehinde, I had wanted to go and meet at Oke Ijebu in Akure.
“The man that carried me took me to a clinic but we were told the doctor was not around.
“That was when a woman, who I don’t know her relationship with the man, asked me about my name and I told her.
“That wa before they got a car that eventually brought me to the State Specialist Hospital, Akure and before my mother and siblings came to meet me.”
According to the good samaritan, Kunle Ariyo, a staff of the Ondo State Radio Corporation: “I was flagged down on my way home from office by a crowd.
“I even thought there was danger ahead and I decided to stop but when they urged me to assist her and I saw that her case was pathetic, I took her and we realised there was no credit on her phone to call her people so someone offered to begin to call all the numbers on her phones to enable them to contact her relation, which we did and they came to meet us at the hospital where she was admitted to the emergency ward.”
Also speaking, Ariyo’s mother, Temidayo, said: “Ehen I expected my daughter to return home later that evening and I did not hear anything from her, I called her phone without response, I called her friend, Kehinde, whom she told me she will be visiting, who claimed she had not seen her.”
Ariyo’s mother, who is a sand supplier, explained that she then told Kehinde to look for her daughter because she told her she was going to visit her.
“It was later I received a call that my daughter has been taken to the hospital,” she said.
The Ondo State Secretariat of National Union of Road Transport Workers has distanced itself from the taxi drivers who defraud and kidnap innocent passengers.
The union said those that are perpetrating such evil acts are not their members.
Reacting to the issue, the Deputy Chairman of the NURTW, Apostle Ajisafe John Omobomi, said: “I will like to enlighten our people that these evil doers only have cars painted in taxi colours but you will realise that they do not have the union number and local government identification number on the body of the car.
“Passengers should not board any taxi without these identification numbers because those criminals cannot be given numbers without our consent so they are not in our register.
“And because our people will nab them, they do not take our route where out monitoring units are.
“The union also thereby calls on the men of Nigeria Police to assist the union and the people by prosecuting anyone caught whenever reported to the police and not be released from the police station without prosecution.”
Omobomi advised people to be more vigilant and check the cabs they want to board and ensure it has the union’s identification number and memorise it to avoid falling a victim of fraud or kidnappers.
Responding to the incident, the Ondo State Police Public Relations officer, ASP Wole Ogodo, said there have not been any report on use of taxis to kidnap anyone in Akure.
Reacting on the incident involving Ariyo, who is still recuperating in the hospital, the police spokesperson said the case has not been reported to the police.
He appealed to the people of the state to endeavour to give useful information to the police to enable them to do a good job by nabbing and prosecuting the criminals.
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