•Odey Mathias and gunmen
A comedian, Odey Mathias known as General Odey, has narrated his ordeal in the den of kidnappers for up to 50 days.
“It was a very horrible experience and an unimaginable one that I won’t really wish my enemy to be part of,” he said on Channels TV today.
He stated that he was kidnapped on April 18, 2025, along with 23 others, while heading to Calabar through the Oron/Uyo waterways.
According to him, the kidnappers fired gunshots. Then, a large boat collided with theirs, and they were transferred from their boat to another one. He said for 40 minutes, they were driven to a location they weren’t aware of.
Mathias said he was in the custody of the kidnappers for up to 50 days, a period longer than that of others who were kidnapped with him.
He assumed the reason for his prolonged detention was because of the uniform he wore as a military general. He said they were drilled, beaten, and starved, and were prohibited from looking at the faces of their kidnappers; and were hit when they did so.
He explained that the area they ended up in resembled a creek and was a community, saying that some had their families there.
“It was like a community. They played loud music and shot guns in the air, and also took us to places where the network was strong enough to receive calls, asking for ransom. I wasn’t allowed to contact my family as often as others did,” he said.
According to Mathias, his family was working with a security agency to find a way to locate and free him, which prompted the kidnappers to demand another installment after the first one was paid.
“I wasn’t allowed to contact my family; I only spoke to my wife twice, once a week into the kidnapping and on the day I was to be released.
“When I came out, I discovered that they (kidnappers) had been paid some amount of money. They made two installments; the first one was over three million. But when that was paid, they didn’t release me; they told my family they wanted more and had to look for additional money. The total amount ended up being up to eight million naira,” he said.
