One of the teachers rescued after spending 56 days in captivity following the mass abduction of pupils and staff in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State has claimed that the kidnappers released the victims before security operatives eventually escorted them to safety.
Zacchaeus Olatunde, who was among the teachers abducted alongside pupils from three schools in May, made the revelation during a telephone interview with Nigeria Info FM on Friday.
His account offers one of the most detailed firsthand descriptions yet of the ordeal endured by the captives before they regained their freedom.
According to Olatunde, the victims remained blindfolded throughout their captivity, leaving them completely unaware of their location.
He said they could not determine whether they were still within Nigeria or had been moved across the country’s borders.
“When we were there, we were blindfolded, not an ordinary blindfold. We didn’t even know if we were in Nigeria or another country. We were just there.
“We were saying maybe the government had even forgotten us,” he said.
The teacher disclosed that their abductors spoke Hausa, Nupe, English and Yoruba, insisting they identified themselves as members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) rather than Boko Haram.
“They said they are not Boko Haram. They said they are ISWAP. I was the last person who was captured in the school, and I was the last person that was released,” Olatunde said.
Giving details of life in captivity and how they were rescued, he said: “When we were there, we were blinded, not blindfolded. We didn’t know if we were in another country because we didn’t know anything. We didn’t know what was happening around us or maybe government had forgotten us, but all I can say is that God answered everyone’s prayers on our behalf. In terms of our feeding, those people really tried for us. Right from the day we were abducted, they told us that if we cooperate and government cooperates, there would be no problem…They were speaking Hausa. Some spoke English and Yoruba. They were speaking Yoruba, but they were not Yoruba people.
“It was miraculous. It was people’s prayer and God’s help. Let me put it that way. After spending so many days, they came to us. When we got there, they told us that we should not pray. But after a month, they told us that we could pray. However, we should not call the name of Jesus out. When it got to an extent, they told us to pray. We were praying inside until the last day when their commander came and they were smiling. They said we should thank God that we had been freed. They told us to open our eyes. We, the two men who came out alive, were blindfolded. We were handcuffed. Our legs were chained. That day, they removed the clothes from our eyes, removed the chains and handcuffs. They said they were not Boko Haram and not bandits. They referred to themselves as ISWAP.
“I was the last person that was released in that bush. Myself and another colleague shared a handcuff. There was a particular day they wanted to lose the handcuff when we wanted to eat, and the key broke. So, the teacher was with me till the day they released us. There was no key to open the handcuff. When they released us, everybody had gone. They said we could not carry the handcuff home and they would look for a way to remove it. One of them said maybe they should cut off my hand. The other disagreed. He looked for one tiny rope, which he used to remove the handcuff. That was how I was also released. However, my people had gone far and I didn’t know the route they took. I heard their sound and ran towards the direction. Their commander called me again and pointed a gun at me. I was afraid and thought I would be killed.
“Their commander asked where I was going, and I told him I didn’t know, but I thought my people passed that route. He directed me to the direction where my people were and followed me a bit. As I was running, I looked behind to see if they were not trying to shoot me. I finally caught up with them. We trekked from that place to a distance of about 40 minutes to one hour where they provided a motorcycle that took us from that bush to the nearest village.
“They said they couldn’t go further again. That was where they stopped and told us to move with our legs. We walked for about an hour and 30 minutes, including the principal, other staff and the pupils, before we got to where those people who government sent to rescue us were. We trekked for about one hour plus before we got to that nearest village called Alawusa. They told us we were going to meet two rivers.
“We met the two rivers. So, when we got to the second river. There were two or three children that couldn’t walk. Despite all that we went through, I carried one, Testimony. When we got to that river, nobody was able to cross, and they were crying saying: “is this the way they would die?” I was brought up in Ondo. So, I went directly inside the river. Before I got inside the river, I took one stick to check the depth. I carried most of those little kids through the river to the other side. Even some of those elderly ones couldn’t go through the river. I assisted them too.
“There was a little boy who almost got submerged, and I quickly took him out of the river. When everybody crossed the river, we told our secondary school students to lead. When those girls were going, let me say two minutes, they ran back, saying they saw two buses. Prior to our release, they told us in the bush that if government refused to dialogue with them, they were going to kill all the elders. They would take the pupils and do all manner of things to them.
“So, we thought we had gone from frying pan to fire when we saw those two buses. The teachers were using kinesis, body language to communicate among ourselves until we saw those people sent to rescue us. We told them that they should show us their identity cards and we saw that they were the DSS that came to rescue us. They now smiled. What made us even more afraid was that they were speaking in the Hausa language. So, we said: “God scaled us through some Hausa people.
“We have now fallen into the hands of another Hausa people again.” However, they said we should calm down and put our mind at rest. However, I look at the vehicle’s number plate. I told my principal that I was scared because the motor had no number plate and it was in tinted glass. When the DSS saw that we were afraid, they called a number. The person said in English that we should not be afraid and that government had come to our rescue. That was how they rescued us back to our school, and from that place, we were taken to Ibadan.”
