Viral videos that went viral on Friday have shown two suspected Fulani Herdsmen kidnappers captured by the armed group of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, the Eastern Security Network, ESN, in Anambra State.
The apprehended Fulani herdsmen kidnappers were said to specialize in kidnapping people inside bushes and lonely places in Anambra State.
The arrested herdsmen kidnappers, numbering two, were apprehended over the week at Amanuke in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State after they ambushed and kidnapped some land buyers who went to check a land at Mgbakwu, also in Awka North Local Government Area.
In the videos currently trending on social media, the arrested herdsmen confessed to being kidnappers but said it was their first mission.
They were also caught with two pump action rifles, while two other accomplices of theirs were said to have run away.
According to the narrator in the video, the intervention of the ESN operatives was the saving grace of the kidnap victims, whom the herdsmen also robbed of their belongings, including their phones and an undisclosed amount of money, before the security operatives intervened and rescued them alive.
The video also showed the deserted hideout of the Fulani herdsmen, located inside the bush.
The narrator with a masculine voice, also explained that some of the residents have fled, while only a girl (suspected to be one of their wives) and a cow were seen within the compound.
The apprehended kidnappers, who identified themselves as Musa Ibrahim, and Umaru, confessed to the crime and also made a shocking revelation that they were being sponsored by a very influential man in Awka, known as Umar Ali.
According to them, it was the influential Umar who provided guns and bullets for them and sent them on operations.
Recounting how it happened, one of the victims, Mr. Patrick Nwankwo, who hails from Enugu State, said they went to the thick bush to check a land that they wanted to buy, after which they were returning to the house of the land owner to conclude their transaction, only for the herdsmen to jump out from the bush and start shooting sporadically.
“Immediately we heard the gunshots, we reversed our cars, and they chased after us, ordering us to stop, while still firing gunshots. And when we eventually stopped, they surrendered us, tied us, and led us into a thick bush in Amanuke, which is where we are now,” he said.
Corroborating Nwankwo’s report, another victim of the same operation, Mr. Paul Ezeanyika, an aged man recounted how he hit his head on the ground while trying to escape during the attack before one of the kidnappers pointed a gun at him and threatened to shoot him dead immediately if he didn’t surrender himself.
“So, I began to plead with him. I begged and begged and begged until he then ordered me to come out from where I was and join others. And they told us to lie down and face the ground,” Ezeanyika recounted.
He also disclosed that the herdsmen robbed them of their belongings, collected his phone, and an undisclosed amount of money he kept inside the car
and even wanted to collect the box of his spectacles, only to see that there was nothing inside it.
Another victim of the same kidnap operation who was also rescued by the ESN also affirmed all the narratives of other victims as true.
TNC reporters made efforts to get the reactions of the Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer,
SP Ikenga Tochukwu, on the incident but he was not responding to the video and messages of inquiry sent to him.
Meanwhile, aside from the masculine voice behind the videos claiming they were members of the ESN, there was no official confirmation as to who undertook the rescue operation from the IPOB.
