Miss Lucy Tapnang, 29, attacked a gang of kidnappers, disarming one of them with his AK-47 and releasing three kidnapped victims in Plateau state’s Barkin Ladi local government area.
Nigerian Tribune newspaper reports that the spokesman for the Plateau police command, DSP Alfred Alabo, disclosed this while speaking to journalists in Jos, the state capital.
He stated that the incident occurred last Tuesday, December 13, at approximately 8:30 p.m., when shooters intercepted and abducted some travelers near the Science School, Kuru, K-Vom in the Jos South local government area of the state while on their way from Abuja to Mangu.
Her words:
“Upon receipt of this report, the command immediately spread dragnets across the state.
”In a bid to rescue the victims unhurt and apprehend the suspect, the commissioner of police, Plateau state command, Bartholomew N. Onyeka, ordered all police divisional headquarters under area commands to comb the forest(s) within their areas of responsibility.
“While acting on the order, the Divisional Police Officer Barkin-Ladi, CSP Yusuf Data, led a team of police operatives to Kassa Forest, where they came into contact with the kidnapped victims through credible information.
“Worthy of note was that one of the victims, a female by the name of Lucy Jeremiah Tapnang, displayed bravery by challenging her captors’ grip knowing that help was on the way.”
Tapnang, who was rescued with multiple injuries, was taken to the police clinic for treatment, he said. At the same time, the other victims, Ismail Suleiman, a Borno man, and Shuaibu Haruna, a Gombe man, responded favorably to treatment.
Miss. Tapnang told journalists that she was in transit with other passengers when they were kidnapped and led into the bush, and that at one point she summoned the courage to attack the kidnappers to aid her escape.
Her words:
“The car we were travelling in was ordered to stop precisely at the Government Science School Kuru by kidnappers at gunpoint. We were ordered to come out and surrender the phones and money in our possession.
”Out of the seven passengers, four of us were led into the bush while the remaining two were allowed to go.
“When we got to the kidnappers’ hideout inside the thick forest, I told others to summon their courage and let’s attack them, but the rest complained that the three kidnappers guarding us are fully armed with dangerous weapons and that doing so could be suicidal.
“I then vowed that no matter what they were holding, my God would protect me. I told them if I held the one with the gun, they should rush the one holding the knife, and I immediately rushed to grab the man with the AK-47, and he shouted and at that point the one with the knife attacked me, wanting to pierce my stomach, but I dodged it, and the knife entered my leg. But I succeeded in throwing the gun out of the hideout.
“I recall when they asked us to call our family members for a 5-million-naira ransom, the travellers warned me that they were holding weapons, but that didn’t scare me.”