A victim who spoke on the condition of anonymity has narrated her ordeal in the hands of the prime suspect in the abduction and murder of Akwa Ibom job-seeker, Iniubong Umoren, Uduak Frank Akpan.
The lady shared her experience on a programme tagged ‘Community Voices’ on Redemption FM, Abak, Akwa Ibom.
According to her, she had the experience on November 7, 2020.
“I made a post on a page on Facebook that I needed a job and a girl, Blessing Lazarus messaged me directly, asking if I was computer literate and if I could use MS Word, I said yes. She replied okay and told me there was a vacancy, she said they had a farm, an integrated farm and they needed someone who could handle computers very well. I replied that I could operate a computer, then she said she was going to give me her boss’ number. She said her boss would brief me about the vacancy in the company.
“It takes 3 days before she got back; she said their farm had birds and (a) fish pond and that they were trying to expand and push it online, and it was the reason why they needed the documentation of everything to be in the system. He asked again if I was sure I could document everything into the system, and I said I have my computer certificate and she said no problem.
“The lady sent me the number of a person she claimed was her boss and instructed me to call him to know the time I would come. She said I should call the person by 4 pm, which I did and the person asked me to start coming to the farm by 5 pm. But I told him that it was too late, that I was far from where he described. I went there the following day, which was a Saturday. Before leaving the house, I told my friend and gave her the location and the necessary information I got about the location.
“I got there around 5 pm; there were no houses around there. It looked believable that those places were farms. Then one small guy came out, I was like ‘is this the boss that they are talking about?’ And I said to myself, well it’s not by age or size. He opened the gate for me.
“We sat on a bench outside, and he started asking me if I could use MS Word, and that I should explain how to use it, which I did. He asked me how much I was expecting to get as salary and I said the girl told me N35,000. I asked why he was asking me or if there was something else attached to the job. He said yes, that they also dealt in drugs and that hospitals bought the drugs.
“He said before I would start the work, they would test those drugs on me. That was when I became scared and said no that what I was there for was a vacancy for a computer specialist and that if it was not available, I would like to take my leave. He said okay that I should let him call his assistant to ask if there was another provision available. He called one lady on the phone and asked her when she was coming and she replied that she was on her way. She said she was driving.
“That was around 6 pm, I told him I needed to go home, that it was getting late. I explained that I was living with my friend and she was the only one that my family knew. I pleaded with him to let me go home and come back the following morning, but he refused. He asked, ‘Don’t you want money?’ That was when I knew that something was going on.
“I was there till 9 pm; before I knew it, he held me by my shoulder. I was begging him, then my friend started calling me. He was like, did you tell anybody that you were coming here? I said yes, that I told my friend. He said a girl called him and he showed me the number and I said she was my friend. He said I messed up, that why would I give my friend his number, that they dealt in drugs and if he left me, they might use me to trace them to know the kind of drugs they dealt in. I started begging him, I promised him that I would not tell my friend to trace them.
“I told my friend to calm down that she should not call me again, that I was fine and my friend said okay. By 10 pm she was calling again, and he told me to stand up and follow him to the backyard, that he wanted to show me where the drugs were, that he wanted to start testing the drugs on me.
“He brought out two cowries, pointed it to the sky and lightning struck, like a lightning connected to the cowrie. He also brought out two wraps of weed from his pocket, and some water. He said if the weed was too hard on me, he would inject me with the water which would clear the drugs from my system but that if it was fine, he would let me go.
“The guy said if I wanted to go, I should take the weed. He started forcing it into my mouth. He said I should swallow it and not allow the smoke to come out. So he told me that the two wraps of weed were for me and him, he lit them and gave me one, he also took one and we started smoking.
“I was coughing, and he said I should keep quiet that people worse than him were around; that made me keep quiet. After taking the drugs, I was no longer scared and I told him that he didn’t know who he was dealing with, that he should let me go, and let it end there. He was just laughing, then he gave me another wrap of weed.
“He told me to pull down my trousers, and my trousers were very tight so I couldn’t pull them down. So he started forcing me. While he was forcing me, I hit my leg on a stone and I shouted. He became scared and was like I should not shout. That was when I knew that there was one duplex around there and someone was inside and he did not want the person to know. Then I started screaming, he now lifted me and hit my head on the veranda (sic).
“I don’t know how I survived it, then he took me inside the room. That was when I saw the girl who had messaged me on Facebook. I said, ‘Babe, how can you do this to a fellow girl like you?’ She started telling me to comply, that they would not let me go.
“I now found out that he hacked someone’s account and was using it, he assaulted me sexually. Around midnight, they started debating. They held my phone and asked me to reset the password on my phone for him to access my Facebook account. They stripped me naked and took my picture, after which he called one bike man (commercial motorcyclist) that he needed to take his sister home. The man replied to him and told him if he wanted a bike, he should go out to the junction. The bike man came, I got dressed and looked normal and he told me to greet my dad and mum at home. They collected my phone and N1, 200 that I had with me, but later gave me N200 for the bike fare.
“I reported the matter to the police but they told me to bring N10,000. I said where would I get the money. Then they said I should not go further with the case.”