Woman held hostage for 9 years by lover regains freedom

A woman from Delta State (names withheld by us) who was kid­napped nine years ago by her lov­er has miraculously regained her freedom. The woman who lived in the Ikotun Egbe area of Lagos stepped out of her lover’s house with her four children for the first time in nine years. The woman said to be a grad­uate and speaks fluent English narrated her ordeal to the people in the area who gathered around to have a glim of her...

Sunday Sun was told by eye witnesses that the woman’s lover who hails from Ekiti State loved her so much and wanted to marry her but because her family was against the relationship, he decided to kidnap her for keeps, to keep her away from her parents. He later took her to a wooden house he built for her in Okerube area of Abaranje, Ikotun, Lagos.Neighbours said the woman claimed not to have known where she was kept because her lover would go to the market to get food for her and her children very early in the morn­ing and threatened that she would die if she stepped out of the house. When he leaves, he makes sure he locks the house so she had no way of coming out. Sunday Sun was told that it was in the wooden house that the woman gave birth to her four children while the hus­band acted as the midwife.Three weeks ago, her lover fell ill and could not as usual go out to fetch food all through the period of his illness. Extreme­ly starved and weak, the woman forced him out on Friday, October 24, 2014 to get what they would eat and drink before they all die of hunger and thirst. Luckily for her and the children, the man forgot to lock the house.It was at this point that the woman decided to urinate and was shocked to see what had hap­pened around her.

When the people in the area discovered her, they came out in their numbers and started questioning her as they thought she was mad. She and her children were so much emaciated but from her responses and body language, they realized she and the children were okay and mentally sound. While in forced confinement, she had taught the children their lessons such that they spoke very well when with their mother in the crowd. She remembered her sister’s con­tact and one of the sympathizers quickly put a call through to her. In about 30 minutes, the sister arrived at the scene and took her and the children away.Eyewitnesses reported that her husband had not returned from the market when she was taken away. They said she was so upset at the forceful rescue that she was scream­ing at the top of her voice: “My husband oh, my husband!” thereby getting her sister an­gry and shouting back at her; “which yeye husband you dey call?”A lady who lived in the neighbourhood said the man built the wooden house near her house. Whenever people go near the place to see if anyone lives there, he would use a catapult and stone to hit them and chase them away. She said: “Anyone who tries to get close, this man will use catapult and stone to shoot them so people had to let him be thinking he was mentally unbal­anced. We didn’t even know he was living there with five people. When the man got back, he found the house empty. He be­gan to shout, ‘’I hate human beings, that is why I isolated myself and my family from them.’’Can you imagine”?It is uncertain if the man is himself a grad­uate or if he is mentally stable but one thing is certain: He was not ready to set his “wife” free and was very upset when she left.