*Experience of a Kidnappee*
I was kidnapped on Thursday being 15/08/2024 at about 6.30pm at a popular and busy Igbariam Junction. On that fateful day, I wasn’t really their target, they were chasing after a man driving Lexus RX 350 SUV and in the process of the man running from them, he recklessly bashed my Toyota corolla (2004 Model). At the scene of the accident, those kidnapers decided to carry all of us. They took us into the forest where we spent 7 days. They used our shirts to blindfold us and made us to sleep on a bare ground (farmland). Simply put, we were kept under the sun and rain for those 7 days and for those 7 days, we didn’t bath nor brush our teeth.
They forced us with serious beating and at gun point to give them all password to our banks apps and they transferred all our money to accounts that belongs to some kidnapped victims with us, whom also they had forcefully collected their ATM cards and pins. Then, they went to POS operators and withdrew the money with these victims ATM cards.
This showcases serious security lapses on POS operations in Nigeria. POS operators can pay up to N2m cash just by inputting 4-digit number without any biometric details of the person collecting the cash. There are many cases where some persons were held hostage, even in their houses, and these hoodlums forcefully collects their ATM cards and pin and withdraw as much as N2m from one account and even withdraws more money if the victim have more than one ATM cards.
When they asked me what I do for a living, I told them that I am just a building contractor that is just managing life. Initially, they believed me but when they went through my picture gallery, the whole thing changed. They saw pictures of me in beautiful offices, houses and places and these got them very angry. They started saying that people like them stay in the bush while people like me are enjoying ourselves in air conditioned offices and houses. The pictures in my phone gallery made them to start beating me with back of cutlass and demanded for N40m ransom, which they later reduced to N15m.
The security lessons one could learn from my ordeal are as follows:
1. Remove all pictures that show affluence from your phone, especially, those you snap in the office wearing ID card showing where you work. These kind of pictures will not do you any good but will only increase your kidnapping value. The worst is showing off on social media. Some go as far as showing their bedroom in social media.
2. Always delete your bank alert from your phone, especially, your life savings account. It is better to keep a phone at home where the alert of your main savings accounts goes to. Your credit balance seen in your phone will form part of ransom payment. You cannot have like N20m in your account and expect kidnapers to demand anything less from it.
3. Ensure you always delete your Retirement Savings Account (RSA) credit alert from your phone. These people don’t know the difference between regular transaction account and the account you can only access when you get to certain age. To them, all seen credit balance define their demand on you.
4. Desist from attaching names of big companies and establishments to names on your contact. Any call from them to you will show you know big people that can pay big money
5. Identity cards, complimentary cards or anything of big establishment should be office thing. The situation in the country doesn’t necessitate moving around with them.
6. Stop moving around with more than one ATM card. Kidnappers normally force you to give them the pin to your ATM cards. The more cards the more of your money that they will withdraw.
7. Also learn not to have more than one bank app on your phone. They will force you at gun point for all your bank apps password. They did it to me. I have 4 apps, and they had access to all.
8. Avoid driving flashy cars especially at night. We were told by one of the kidnapers that they target flashy cars.
9. We were advised again by one of them to avoid going to flash points joint at night to drink. E.g., a man who spends like N200,000 in a joint with friends has passed a message to them that he is rich. They kidnap people like that as soon as they leave the joint.
