Hon. Frank Igboka, former chief whip of the Anambra State House of Assembly on June 2, was faced with a life-threatening situation when he was abducted by gunmen believed to be kidnappers. But with a warrior's heart and in a Rambo style, he without anything confronted his abductors and in the process, over-powered them and seized one of their AK47 riffles.
The politician who said he was once a wrestler, however, attributed his bravery and escape to divine intervention, noting at a point in the encounter, he said his last prayers and prepared his mind to die.
Igboka told his story to Daily Sun and also advised the police on some security issues.
My encounter with kidnappers
First and foremost, I have to give thanks and glory to God Almighty for saving my life from the hands of the kidnappers. It was a terrible experience, terrible situation indeed. Before the incident, I have been having feelings about such incident happening, but because I couldn't fish out exactly what sign I'm experiencing until the day of the incident on June 2nd. I went to mass in the morning. It was the feast of ascension. I came out and went to my house, finished all my daily activities and wanted to drive down to the state capital.
All of a sudden, I saw people coming from my back with an Infinity Jeep and blocked me immediately and started shouting with AK47 riffles that the occupant of the vehicle should come down. I stopped and came down from the car and they started demanding for my phones and all that. Before then, the phone fell down and we started searching for the phone and when they were about to go and pick the phone where the phone fell down, I picked up race, trying to run for my dear life and they pursued me, fired several shots at me, but I was lucky and was not touched by any bullet.
They followed me behind and I could not find where to hide or where to protect myself. They came to that place and re-arrested me, took me to their vehicle and abandoned my own vehicle there and vamoosed. Heading towards Aniocha local government, they were communicating to the other group because they were two groups with two vehicles. The other group parked somewhere. Getting to that point, they were communicating, giving them directions of where to go to. The guy wrongly took another direction instead of the proper direction they were giving him.
My miraculous escape
Heading towards that Aniocha LG, they spotted a police check point accidentally, they immediately made a U-turn and fired in the air and the police also fired at them and they started running helter-skelter to escape, thinking that the policemen were also pursuing them and I was asking them to stop, that the policemen will fire on us and all that. They said I should keep quiet and forced my head down. It was at that point that I picked up a lot of courage and pounced on the person with the AK47 and we started struggling. I pointed the mouth of the gun at the driver's side so that even if at all the man wants to shoot, he will get the driver.
Because of that, the driver smelt danger and parked the vehicle. The man jumped down with the AK47, I came down immediately, pounced on him and we started to struggle. I took the position of the gun where the trigger is, I fired on the trigger; there was no bullet inside. Immediately, I cocked it, he was holding the mouth of the gun, he immediately released his hand from the gun and then I fired at him at the back, he shouted and jumped back into the vehicle, the driver moved the vehicle immediately and they escaped. The other group turned back again and started firing at me. I was also using that gun to exchange fire with them before they escaped and ran away finally.
Threats from the kidnappers
I give glory to God Almighty; I thank Him for giving me that courage to face them. I recovered that AK47 with three magazines fully loaded with bullets. Since then, I have been receiving anonymous calls that were saying that I should go and drop that gun. Wherever the gun is that I should go and drop it where they will pick it. That if not, whatever that happens to me, I will regret my life.
So, I'm seizing this opportunity to alert the police to be very vigilante because their next line of action is to recover the gun either from the police at the check point. Everybody has to be at alert and also my life is in danger. I know that whoever that God is with, no weapon fashioned against him shall succeed. That is where my faith is and I believe that even if they come 20 times, God must always protect me.
I don't wish anybody such a thing. I've made so much complaints to the police, I've mentioned so many things. Where I'm suspecting, the police have been carrying on their investigations. The way I look at it, it looks like the investigation is very, very slow because this gun recovered has a number and needs to be investigated where the gun is coming from so that we can make headway.
My training
I was totally a barrack boy. I was brought up by a military man and I went to military school too. I have an experience about all these things. I won't say I don't have knowledge about these things; I have knowledge of it very, very well. So, that is why I was able to do it. Aside, I am a judoka and wrestler; an Olympic champion and I have been practicing. I have to apply all the techniques I know about self defense. That was what saved me. I am an Olympic wrestler, a current champion in the Olympic in Judo and Wrestling. I have won about 30 gold medals.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.
No comments:
Post a Comment