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A Reverend Sister, Emmanuella Ayanwu, one of the five persons kidnapped by the armed gang which killed Olajide Sowore, the younger brother of Sahara Reporters Publisher, Omoyele Sowore, has narrated how she escaped from the kidnappers.
Sowore’s younger brother was shot dead on Saturday while travelling to Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State.
According to the police, the deceased was gunned down when he attempted to escape the armed gang that operated on the Benin-Lagos road.
Ayanwu,34, of All Blessed of the Holy Spirit Convent in Ghana, explained that she was travelling to Imo State but stopped over in Lagos, where she boarded a vehicle to her destination.
She said they ran into trouble after the vehicle developed a fault.
Narrating how she managed to escape at the State Police Command Headquarters, in Benin, she said she fled when the kidnappers focused their attention on their new abductee.
“It was raining at about 7.30 in the night when they brought a new person to meet us in the bush. They collected the man’s phone and other things.
“I then noticed that all their concentration was on the man, I removed my blindfold, summoned courage and escaped unnoticed.
“I saw a mast far away and I started trekking towards it. After one hour or more, I got to a road
“When I managed to get to the road, I met a man who directed me to some policemen on the road by Okada junction after narrating my ordeal to him,” Anyanwu said.
The Reverend Sister said the police thereafter took her to their headquarters in Benin, the Edo State capital.
On how she was kidnapped, Anyanwu said: “About five men emerged from the bush at about 6:30am to 7am after our vehicle broke down and they started shooting sporadically.”
She explained that the gunmen rounded them up, adding that when they came down from the vehicle, the gunmen ordered them to lie down, and marched them into the bush blindfolded after collecting their belongings.
“So, they started calling us one after the other and I was the last person they called. They asked me where I was coming from and where I was going.
“They asked me if I am married and I told them that I am married and I have two children but that is not true because I am from the convent and we don’t marry,” she said.