DELTA KIDNAPPED JOURNALIST ESCAPES

The journalist who was kidnapped on Monday night in Warri, Monday Whiskey, has escaped from his captors.

The journalist, who was seized while driving into his compound on Orhuworhun road, Udu Local Government, fled from his kidnappers on Tuesday night in Ughelli, where he was taken to.

In the incident reminiscent of American action films, Whiskey said he was chained in both his hands and legs and was neither given water nor food.

Narrating his story to The Punch, he said, 'At about 7.30pm on Monday, I noticed a car following me. As soon as I parked, the car blocked me from behind and the occupants demanded that I should alight.

'Just at the same time, my daughter that came to open the door greeted them and they said they were taking me away.''

Whiskey stated that his captors immediately pushed him into their car, covered his eyes and minutes later, he noticed they were driving past communities on roads that were not tarred and then through bush paths.

'After driving for a long while, they took me inside a house and chained my legs with keys. The following day, they called my wife that she should bring N10m.'

Whiskey, a seasoned journalist and a former Special Assistant to the Managing Director of the state owned Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, said the kidnappers then took turns to guard him.

'Later in the evening, the one that was guarding me took money from my pocket that he was going to buy cigarette. I also noticed that the chain in my leg had slacked, then I started pulling at the door but it was not yielding, then I traced the lock before it opened.'

But just as he was heaving a sigh of relief, the kidnappers sighted him and were struggling to relocate him when help came his way.

'Unfortunately, when I jumped over the fence and got to the road, one of the boys saw me , then we started struggling and fighting. I didn't notice any gun with him, so I bit his hand off and he bit my eye.

'In the dead of the night, he stopped a motor bike and told the bike man he was trying to help me; they bundled me onto a bike and was speeding off and I continued dragging with them and matching the brake of the bike, then we both fell.'

Luckily for Whiskey, the Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Warri, Mr Akpokona Omafuaire, was coming back from his village in Ughelli.

When the boys sighted the car, they ran away before Omafuaire picked him in his car and drove him to the Owvian Police Station in Warri.

'It was both like a miracle and an action film,' said Omafuaire.