I know this is long - but makes interesting reading and takes the glamour out of being kidnapped.
MILITANCY
Kidnapped UK Oil Worker Speaks of Captivity Ordeal
Death Threats. Reported in the UK Sun newspaper today is a graphic account of the 16 day ordeal suffered by a kidnapped UK oil worker eventually rescued on 21 April. Alan Preston in his interview described how he was tortured and intimidated while he was left shackled to a tree at a camp in the Nigerian jungle. Under the constant threat of death, he describes how he was shot in both feet to stop him escaping, drugged, badly beaten, denied medical attention and subjected to barbaric ritualistic practices. Speaking from his home in Pilton, Edinburgh, Mr. Preston said: “They gave me a shovel and told me to dig my own grave, because if they had to, they’d just bury me alive. Then they told me they were going to cut my head off and brought a basket filled with leaves and set it in front of me and I thought that was the end for sure.” He
was apparently released when Nigerian Special Forces stormed the hideout and gunned down all the drug-crazed militants. The 50-year-old engineer had been abducted on 5 April as he watched football on TV at the Edessa Hotel in Port Harcourt. The kidnappers reportedly opened fire on its private security staff during a botched attempt to grab a prominent politician, with his guard from his firm Adamac Industries and four kidnappers killed in the fire-fight. He was shot in the feet with an AK-47 semi-automatic rifle as the remaining gang members bundled him into a vehicle. His captors then gagged him and held a gun to his head as they withdrew to their secret camp in the bush. He said: “They shot my guard and took me instead of their intended target, because I was the only white man in the bar. I didn’t even realise I had been shot until they bundled me into the car and I looked down and saw the blood and flesh hanging. Then the pain kicked in and I just wanted to scream but I couldn’t because of the gag.”
Militant Camp. After at least an hour he arrived at their base where he was immediately bound to a tree. He said: “There was a woman already chained to the gazebo. She was crying and I later found out she had been kidnapped too.” Mr. Preston told how the first few days went by in a fog after his captives pumped him with chemicals. He said: “When we reached the camp they were injecting me with so much drugs and alcohol that for the first few days it was difficult to feel anything other than sheer terror at what might happen. I don’t know what the drugs were. It may have been heroin.” He said he pleaded with the rebels to tend to his injured feet but instead he was punched and slapped by gang members, furious that four of them had been shot dead. “They were shouting at me in their own language and moved me onto a plastic mat and handcuffed me to a tree. I was in agony and that first night I thought that I would lose my foot, I could see the bones and the muscle turning to mush. I thought I was finished. For the first few days the rebels continued to keep him sedated, while refusing to give him water. He said: “They would only give me beer in those first few days. I told them I needed medical help but that just got me a slap. And then they gave me an injection and kept me high.” Mr. Preston said he’d been held for two days before the militants asked him what company he worked for. He said: “When they found out it was Adamac Industries, they told me the father of the chairman had been kidnapped and died in captivity because the family wouldn’t pay the ransom. When I heard that I was terrified, because I thought what chance do I have to leave here?” Eventually he persuaded his captors he needed medical attention and they brought a local from a nearby village to help him. “They told me he was a doctor but he was really the local chemist and he brought hydrogen peroxide and just poured it over my foot. It was agony but if I cried out I would get a slap, I wasn’t even allowed to cough. To stop me screaming they’d shove this ganja weed pipe in my face and make me smoke it.” He said he was also forced to drink a disgusting concoction made up of goats’ eyes and testicles. “They told me it was black magic and that I had it inside me. It was another trick by them to control me.”
Continuing Ordeal. Mr. Preston said he lost all track of time and as the days turned into weeks, he was convinced he would never be freed. He said: “They’d shove a rifle in my face and tell me to say my last prayer then laugh. Eventually, after the beatings and mind games I just told them to do what they had to do because I got to the point where I had just given up. I knew they would want a ransom but I also know it is illegal for companies to pay. So in the back of my mind I thought I would be executed when their demands were refused. Every time they came I thought that was it, my life was over. I would think of my girlfriend Tracey and my stepdaughter and how I would never see them again. Here it was all going to end in an African jungle at the hands of drugged-up killers with AK-47s. Things like that shouldn’t happen to guys like me.” He added: “To the kidnappers, killing, maiming, terrorising is just a job. They kept saying we don’t care if you’re alive or dead, tomorrow you die. I just said to them before they shot me would they let me call home. Speaking to Tracey was all I could think about.” During his imprisonment, his captors taunted girlfriend, Tracey Ferrier, with texts demanding she pay a ransom. She’d only discovered Alan had been captured after he was ordered to phone her and she then alerted the authorities, adding: “We’d always been aware of the risks of him working over there but for it to actually happen was just unreal. They would text me and tell me to pay the ransom because Alan’s company wouldn’t. They originally wanted £2.5million and by the end of the last week they wanted me to wire £3,000 into a bank account. I just kept telling them I wouldn’t until I had spoken to Alan. It was terrifying.”
Nigerian Special Forces Rescue. Mr. Preston’s ordeal finally came to an end when Nigerian Special Forces launched a raid to free him on 21 April, apparently shooting all his captors dead. He said: “At first I thought they were more rebels, another gang, who had come to get me and hold me captive. They just crept into the camp and shot two of the kidnappers and grabbed me and told me to run with them. It was all so fast that I actually ripped the nail of my toe running. They just kept saying ‘Move, move’.” He added: “I hate the kidnappers and I don’t care they are all dead.” The Sun said Mr. Preston had been in Nigeria for three months before the abduction. He decided to go back to the trouble-torn African country after a stint last year, despite knowing risks. He said: “I was living in a hotel in Port Harcourt which is full of poverty. People still live in mud huts and hygiene is not very good but the hotel was clean and tidy and the people were nice, even if most of us did need several armed guards to even go to the toilet.” Mr Preston arrived back in Scotland on Wednesday and now faces major surgery on his damaged feet. He said: “I’m just going to take it one day at a time and see how I feel. I’m just glad to be home. It was thoughts of Tracey and my family that kept me going.”
Comment: The salutary account of Mr. Preston’s ordeal illustrates graphically the possible dangers facing kidnap victims and adds to the long list of adverse fallout from the Niger Delta lawlessness, which is proving so damaging to the country’s international reputation and economy as well as the operations of foreign firms in region. Genuine militancy is riddled with criminality and the vast majority of kidnappings are for pure profit.