‘My kidnappers injected me with unknown substances’

‘My kidnappers injected me with unknown substances’

Posted by Sylvester on Saturday, February 8, 2014 0

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Human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome, has revealed that he had to quickly travel abroad after his ordeal in the hands of kidnappers last year because his abductors injected him with unknown substances. 

Ozekhome says he actually travelled abroad to quickly carry out an intensive medical check-up that included the cleaning of his blood at the cost of 2, 000 British pounds sterling.

The fiery lawyer fell into the hands of kidnappers on Friday, August 23, 2013 in an ambush that claimed the lives of four officers of the Nigeria Police Force on the Benin-Auchi-Okene Highway.

Ozekhome regained his freedom exactly after 20 days, after which he quickly left for Lagos from where he later travelled to the United Kingdom. Recalling his experience, he said he had to go for medical check-up because he was unsure of his health and life after he was repeatedly injection with unknown substances by his abductors.

Ozekhome says he is grateful to the media, which stood by him with reports that simply overwhelmed his abductors, who were buying and reading news reports that beamed the searchlight on his capture from different angles in different newspapers every day. Ozekhome recalled, “I respect Nigerian media a lot. I will never forget how the media stood by me during my kidnapping experience.

Every day, my kidnappers were always coming to ask me: ‘What did you do for the press that they are always writing about you?’ They were always coming to me, wearing masks and saying, ‘Oh God, we have never had this type of problem before ever since we have been kidnapping.’ It became our prayer point while we were with the kidnappers that the media would sustain their reports on our ordeal. And the media never relented in the reports.

If not, they would have killed us in their den.” Ozekhome, who listed the local and international media organizations that assailed him with interview requests after his release, continued, “When the army of journalists met me in my house immediately after my release, I was not prepared for interviews straight away. I was thinking that I would meet journalists the following day but what I did not know was that my wife had a different plan. She had secretly prepared a trip for me to go abroad even without my knowledge.”

“While I like to fly British Airways because it departs in the night, my wife bought me a ticket of Virgin Atlantic Airlines, which flies in the morning. So, very early before 5.00am, she woke me up and said, ‘Sweetie, wake up, take your bath and get dressed.’ I said, ‘Why?’ She said, ‘You are leaving for London right now.’ I said, ‘Are you mad?’ She said, ‘No. This is your ticket. Sorry, you have to move because we are leaving now.’ That was how I found myself in London even without any prior knowledge.

As soon as I got to London, I quickly began a comprehensive medical check up of all my body system and organs, which cost me about 2, 000 pounds; including my blood because they injected me when I was in their custody. ”