Twenty-six-year-old Gbolahan Olaniyi tells Punch correspondent, AYOOLA OLASUPO how he spent 42 days in kidnappers’ den after he was abducted on a farm in Ekiti State before escaping from captivity
What do you do for a living?
I am currently jobless because of an incident that happened to me. But before now, I used to manage a farm in Oke Ako, Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
How old are you?
I’m 26 years old.
What were you doing on the farm the day the incident happened?
It all started on the 23rd of October 2025, when I worked as a manager at YSJ Limited, Oke Ako. So, it was on a Thursday morning, and I was on the farm writing a report to my boss. The farm was meant to be the state governor’s farm, but it was under the care of YSJ Limited, which is owned by a woman.
We had two functional operators at the farm at that moment. One of them was packing cassava, while the other one was working with the people harvesting maize.
It was during the maize harvesting period, so I told one of the workers to pack the cassava, and then the other should continue with the harvesting of maize, and he took some workers into the farm for the harvest.
I asked him to come back immediately so that we could continue with the cutting of the cassava stems and also plant them that day. I tried to reach him because he was delaying the work. Unfortunately, I could not reach him.
How did you manage the situation?
I had to get the other tractor operator who went to the farm to harvest maize. On my way to the farm, I took my bike to search for the second operator because his phone stopped going through. When I got to the farm, I saw the tractor in the wrong direction. It was facing the bush, which was not normal.
Then, I dropped my bike, and when I got to the tractor, I heard a sound that herdsmen often make when communicating with their cows. They had already laid an ambush both left and right, so the next thing I knew was that they were pointing AK-47 rifles at my head.
How many were they?
They were seven in number with AK-47 rifles. I felt like, ‘Is this a dream or what? What’s going on, God?’
I quickly knelt down and raised my hands up. They collected my handbag, farm books, phone, and on that day, I had N8,000 cash on me, which I wanted to pay the workers harvesting maize for us.
They tied my two hands with a rope. Along the way, I saw the tractor operator as well. They brought him out of the bush, and I think he had already been shot in his hand.
Where did the kidnappers take you to?
They took us through the forest at the back of our farm, and we crossed the river. We then got to a high hill, where they asked us to hold on. They said we should rest for a while; they roasted the maize that they had earlier stolen from people’s farms.
Then the bandits’ leader asked me to call my employers because he wanted to speak with them. When I called my boss, I told her that I had been kidnapped. The woman told me that she was going to send the police, the army, and a drone to rescue me.
What was the kidnappers’ reaction?
Immediately, the bandits’ leader heard that, he said he did not want to see any police, and that what he needed was money. Then he hung up the call. I called the woman again and informed her that it was money the bandits needed. She then asked how much the bandits wanted. The leader of the bandits said they wanted N100m for my release and another N50m for the tractor operator.
Did your boss agree to pay the ransom?
She said, ‘No problem’ and that she was going to make a transfer, but the bandit said they wouldn’t accept a transfer, and that all they needed was cash. We later became 11 people who were kidnapped. On the fourth day, they told me to call my boss again to know whether she had raised the money.
Unfortunately, she did not pick up our call. She had blocked my number and that of the bandit. I tried to use my other number as well, but she had blocked our lines.
What did you do after that?
I called my mum and told her what happened. She shouted and asked if I had called my boss, and I said yes, but to no avail.
Then, on the fifth day, my mum said she could not reach her. Later, she was able to reach her. She cried and begged her. Eventually, she was able to send N2m. At that point, my mum had started negotiating with the leader of the bandits, and they all agreed on N15m each for me and the operator.
That was a total of N30m. I told the bandit that they should consider only me, and that the operator should also try to call his family if he wanted to be rescued. He did not know any of his family members’ phone numbers offhand, and he wasn’t with his phone either. So, I told the bandit that he should get me my phone, and that I had the contact of the operator’s boss on my phone.
After the 8th day, my mum, younger brother, and my dad brought the ransom to Egbe, a town in Kogi State, and other items like two cartons of malt drink, milk, Black Bullet energy drink, five congo of rice and beans, two Android phones, trousers, a shirt, and other things that I can’t remember now. According to my mum, everything was a total of N600,000. They brought everything with the ransom to the bandits.
Were you released after your parents paid the ransom?
No! The following morning, which was the 9th day, the bandit came to me and said, ‘Manager, your money never complete o. Your money remain N55m.’ I said to myself, ‘How can it be N55m? Is it the N15m that was paid that was not complete or what?’
Then the bandit said I should forget about the N15m that was paid and that I should consider a new payment of N55m. I started begging, and told him that I was just a labourer there and that my family wasn’t the owner of the farm, but he insisted that I was lying.
So, he kept on beating and torturing me. I was breathing like I was going to die because we were tortured and brutalised. Fortunately for the operator, they were able to raise N2m after we reached out to his boss.
Although his boss did not have his family’s contact, they were able to raise that amount. After they told the bandit that they had raised N2m, he (the bandit) said he didn’t need the N2m. He said, ‘N2m no be money.’ Then he shot the operator twice; one in his stomach and one in the chest. He was killed immediately after his boss said he had only N2m.
How did you feel at that moment?
That was the craziest day of my life. I was urinating on my body. I shivered and couldn’t move. I nearly died. After he killed the operator, the bandit told one other guy, who was also kidnapped, and me that we should carry his corpse to the nearest bush behind where we were, drop it there, and come back.
When we got back to where he was, he said we should leave that location, and we walked for about three to four hours before we got to another location where they kept us till the 22nd day when the bandit took me to another group.
I was the only one left out of the 11 people they kidnapped. The driver was killed, and the remaining nine people had been released. Some of them paid N5m, N10m, N15m, or N20m before they were released.
So, I was the only one left. After, I was taken to another group; it was the last time I saw the group of bandits that kidnapped me. When I joined the group, I was taken to a place where I saw two other men who were chained on their legs and handcuffed. I was also chained and left with the group until the 30th day when we observed that we weren’t seeing those bandits again except their errand boy who stayed with us.
The other man and I were discussing that maybe the bandits had gone for another operation. Then, we realised that those bandits were responsible for the Eruku CAC attack in Kwara State where 38 people were kidnapped.
In the evening, we started hearing different sounds of motorcycles, and we were scared because we didn’t know what was going on. My heart was shaking because I didn’t know whether they were coming to kill us.
How many days did you spend in captivity altogether?
It was 42 days before we escaped, and we were being fed white rice with no salt, no seasoning or pepper; just plain white rice, and they would always give all of us one litre of water per day. We ate rice once in a day.
The bandits’ errand boy staying with us was the one who told us that it was the Kwara state government that paid a ransom of N350m for their rescue. I said to myself, ‘Why can’t they release us as well after collecting a huge amount of money, and spending 42 days with them?’
Later, on the 36th or 37th day, one of the bandits came to me and said, ‘Manager, you wan go house abi?’ I said, ‘Yes, I’m tired.’ He then asked me if my family would be able to get another N2m for my ransom, and I said yes.
He gave me his phone number to call my family, and then I called my mum and told her what the bandit asked. My mum said she was going to borrow the money. She kept asking the bandit if they were going to release me, and the bandit said yes, as long as we brought the money.
On Friday of that week, the bandit came to me and said I should call my mum to know if the money was available. My mum said the money was available and asked where she would drop it.
What was the bandit’s reply?
The bandit said the money should be sent to his bank account, which my mum did, thinking I would be released that day. He left that very day, and then came back to say he had withdrawn the N2m, and that the following day, I’d be going home.
So, on Saturday, I didn’t see this guy, and I became scared. Then I spoke with their errand boy, who was a bit friendly with us. He was not beating us like the others.
I asked him why the other guy was not coming to release us. He said maybe the man was doing something else. When the guy came later in the evening, he didn’t come to meet us at the mountain where they kept us, but rather he called their errand boy.
I didn’t know what they were discussing until the errand boy came back angry, saying that he was only given N15,000 out of the N2m they had just received from my mum.
The young man was very angry, and he said he was no longer working with them. He said he was going to his father’s house, which was not far from there.
We begged him to stay with us because we didn’t know who else would be asked to replace him, but he insisted. We had to wait until Sunday around 7 pm or 8 pm, after he finished praying, then he left.
He dropped both the chain and handcuffs keys, and his torchlight as well before he left. Initially, we thought it was a joke, so we waited for about one hour to observe the premises.
When we didn’t see the guy or anyone again, I told the other two people that the moment was a good chance for us to escape that night.
Then, we struggled to take the key there, unlocked the chains and handcuffs, and took the torchlight before we ran off. We ran down to the playground.
What happened afterwards?
We walked through the whole forest. So, whenever we came across a river, we would drink water from it to survive. That was how we walked through the forest till Monday evening. We didn’t meet anyone. We got to a point and rested because we were tired, and we could not walk again.
We had leg pain and everything. The other baba among us was becoming pessimistic that he hoped we would not regret leaving that place, but I told him that nothing would happen to us and that by Tuesday morning, we would be able to meet someone.
What happened the following day?
On Tuesday morning, we started the movement again. The baba could not even walk again. But we kept on encouraging him. We walked until we got to a very large river; we crossed it, drank the water, and relaxed there.
After we crossed the river, we saw a very large farm. It was a plantation. When we got there, we saw the tracks left by a machine tyre, and we followed them so they could lead us somewhere until we got to a certain place where we saw small children and other men eating under a tree.
The other two guys understood Hausa very well, so they told them that we were not there to harm them and that we were kidnapped but later escaped. Then the baba prayed for us.
Fortunately, we got to a place where we saw people seated. They were cooking beans, so one old man there gave us food and water, and we were very happy as if we hadn’t eaten beans before in our lives. We then asked for the nearest town to the farm, and the baba said Isanlu-Esa in Kogi State, and called one of his male children to take his bike and carry us to the nearest village.
Luckily, there was an army camp at that village. So, they took us to the camp, where I met their Major and explained what happened to him. He was the one who snapped me with his phone and sent it to the army camp at Oke Ako, where I was kidnapped.
So, they contacted each other, and that was how we were able to move from Isanlu-Esa to Ado Ekiti, then to the RRS office, where we wrote our reports. When I got there, I met my mum. She wrote her report before they handed me over to her.
How have you been coping with the trauma?
It has not been easy. The first three to four weeks that I got home, I was unable to sleep. Whenever I slept a bit, I would wake up because I was feeling that I was still with the kidnappers. The trauma is still all over me. Anytime I go out, and I see a Fulani man, I will always be scared.
