?
Renewed acts of kidnapping have been reported by men suspected to be ?members of a suspected ritual gang in Asaba.?
The men, leadership Sunday understand, are allegedly ?based in Ibusa and are ‘well equipped’ with charms to hypnotise their victims into doing their bidding.?
?
Only last Friday, an eight-year-old girl and 14-year-old boy were said to have fallen victims, though it was clear that they had no money to give. The boy, identified as Chuks, told leadership Sunday that he was forcefully “pushed into the car which had five men inside, about a meter from the Asaba police station, to an area in Ibusa”, where they held a “grinded white substance to my nose”.
?
“I was just walking when one of them came directly to me and started asking me for directions to a place I have never heard of. When I realised they were trying to trap me, two came behind to hit me hard. I wanted to struggle, but I was pushed inside a waiting vehicle and I became unconscious. I think I was hypnotised when they hit me on the back,” said Chuks. The potency of the charms, leadership Sunday gathered, made him unconscious and when he woke up, he discovered that he was in a lonely room surrounded by bushes and his body was sticky with some things rubbed on him, which he suspected to be fetish ?substances.
?
“I was warned that if I move, I would experience painful death,”Chuks said.
Many victims who did not want their names in print said they were rubbed white substances allegedly meant to rob them of their senses, before the would be used for whatever intent.
?
The men, leadership Sunday gathered, always dressed in suit to deceive unsuspecting residents into buying non-existent products, after they shake hands with the already prepared charms to facilitate their fraudulent processes.
The police authorities confirmed that there have been reported cass of kidnap, but added that only three persons have been arrested in connection with the incident.
The spokesman of the police in Asaba, ASP Charles Muka, confirmed the story, and added that plain clothes policemen have been sent out to monitor the activities of the group.