January 17, 2023 was like any other day for 47-year-old horticulturist Henry Edobor Okunrobo as he had no premonition of the fate that would befall him. If he knew that as he woke up that fateful day he would be abducted on the road, offered as sacrifice to the gods but rejected and would end up in a slave camp, he would not have ventured out of his house in Obadore community, in Igando area of Lagos. His resistance to being abducted infuriated his abductors who gave him deadly punches to his mouth that removed three of his front teeth. As fate would have it, the missing teeth were his saving grace after he was offered to the gods as sacrifice somewhere in Ogun state. He was taken to two ritualists but was considered unfit for sacrifice. He was said not to be incomplete because of the missing teeth.
Genesis of my travails
“My name is Henry Edobor Okunrobo but I’m popularly known as Epa 1 of Obadore in Obadore community, Igando area of Lagos. I’m an horticulturist and at the same time a passionate advocate for a better Nigeria. During the electioneering campaigns that preceded the February 25, 2023 presidential election in Nigeria, I was a strong advocate of the Obidient movement and my advocacy attracted a lot of people with similar political beliefs. People urged me on and some even supported me financially because they loved what I was doing.
I never met the Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi in person but I bought his political ideology and campaigned for him to be the President of Nigeria. I singlehandedly campaigned for the Labour party and wanted to be heard, at least in my area. I became very popular as I commanded many followers.
As I intensified my campaign and my message grew louder, followers of other political parties became more and more uncomfortable. They were irritated by the consistency and intensity of my message. They hated me for what I was doing
How I was abducted
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“On that fateful night of January 17th 2023, after one of my campaign routines, at about 9:30 pm, I went out to look for food. Masked men in a black SUV jeep drove past me at an unusually slow speed. I noticed that they were intentional and it aroused my suspicion. I attempted to move faster but before I could make any attempt to raise an alarm, the car reversed towards me and stopped. Three masked men alighted from the vehicle and told me, ‘enter the car now or you die here.’ The moment they noticed I was about to raise an alarm, they landed two heavy punches on my mouth. I lost three teeth in the process and I was then bundled into the car.
Passersby didn’t notice anything unusual as they went about their normal businesses. No one noticed my abduction and those who witnessed the drama may have thought it was a simple conversation between acquaintances living in the area. I was sandwiched by the two masked men at the back seat of the car and made to face down while the driver and another man in front discussed in hushed tones along the way.
At the ritualists’ den
“After driving for about four hours, the car suddenly stopped and I was asked to get down. All I could see around me were trees and bushes, I had no idea where I was. I only noticed a small village in the middle of nowhere. Later, an old man of about sixty years came out of a building with one of the masked men and came to where I was standing with the other three men. I was then escorted into the main house and I overheard them speaking in Yoruba language but could not grasp the content of their conversation. At that moment, I had already concluded that I would never see my family again.
They were asking me questions but they never asked questions that made sense to me. I was there for seven days without seeing the sun during the day nor the moon by night. I was tied down ready for sacrifice but they were giving me food three times a day. There were other captives there, about 20 people both men and women and kept in a small room. I was able to find someone among them who understood English and that was the moment I realized that I had been taken captive to be used for ritual. I was very scared immediately when I heard this.
“After seven days of being in captivity, the herbalist came in with the men that kidnapped me. I knew I was the subject of their discussion. The herbalist then pointed at me while speaking with my captors with anger in his voice. Later I was asked to stand up and was led outside the house. When we got outside the building, one of the men said, ‘let’s take him to the other man’, and they all agreed. I begged them to let me go with tears in my eyes but instead they took me inside their car and I was taken to another herbalist not very far from the first herbalist.
“At the second herbalist’s place where I spent three days, seven of us were there as captives. We were being called one after the other. Whenever any of us was called out to enter the shrine and he didn’t come back, the rest of us would know that that person had gone. When it was my turn, I was called to enter the shrine but nothing happened. Then I heard the herbalist shouting in Yoruba language, ‘who brought this incomplete man here? Do you want to spoil my shrine? The gods can’t accept this disabled man unless you can find his missing teeth’.
Sold into slavery
“Confused as to what to do next, the kidnappers suggested among themselves that I should be killed. But the herbalist advised that instead of killing me, I should be taken to his partner who usually bought people who have been rejected by the gods to work for him on his farm as slaves. Eventually, I was sold to the man but I don’t know how much the man paid. The farm was very big, there were other slaves working there as well. There were about 30 people working for the farmer in a very remote village and the youngest person should be around 13 or 15 years. In the morning there were guards or task masters that would share potions of the farmland to us and we must complete our tasks for the day. While at the farm, I was completely hypnotised as I could not remember anything again.
I lost my memory and could not even remember my name. The people I met there became my family and because I was working very hard, they began to call me ‘Jackie’. We were fed three times a day and our movement was being watched closely by some guards. After spending a year and nine months, I had become so weak, I was falling sick every now and then and I was no longer productive. At one point, I even asked them to kill me because I could not move any part of my body anymore. When they saw that I was no longer useful, they told me that I should go and thank my God and I was finally released.
Set free after one year, nine months
“On the day of my release, I was taken on a bike and we rode for almost two hours through the bush path before we got to the highway. Then I saw some men gathered not far from where I was standing and immediately I started to regain consciousness and I wondered how I got to that place. I then went to the men and asked them where that place was and they told me ‘this is Lagos – Abeokuta road’.
So I asked them to direct me to the nearest town and they pointed to one direction to walk down. I then got to a small town called Itori in Ogun state where I decided to beg people for money to enable me get back home. I was in Itori town for three days begging for assistance and spent the nights in a gas station with bus drivers. After raising a substantial amount to take me home, I left the town for Lagos.
Back home
“The reunion with my friends was nothing short of a miracle. Although I was tired, I was in high spirits because I was alive. The whole community was in shock seeing a man long forgotten. It was as if they were seeing a ghost. They rushed to me and welcomed me back, trying to know what really happened. They also informed me that they had done posters and fliers of my obituary after the police tried searching for me to no avail”.
Mr Henry’s captivity may have drained him emotionally, but he was determined to pick the pieces of life together even as he expressed frustration as to where to begin from.
He arrived home to learn that his wife and children had relocated to Benin believing he was dead. He also came back to see his flowers destroyed and had no means of livelihood.
Though the trauma of the past 20 months may remain with him for the rest of his life, Mr Henry Edobor Okunrobo emerged as a symbol of endurance and courage as he continued his advocacy for human rights, with his voice now even more powerful than ever.
