Survivors describe forced marches through forests, starvation, and organ‑threat extortion as kidnapping surges across rural communities in Southeast Nigeria.
By Ebere Inyama
(Owerri, Imo state) Kidnapping for ransom – the plague of Nigeria’s Middle Belt – has been spiking in the Southeastern states in the last year, TruthNigeria has learned from exclusive testimonies of survivors. According to security reports from SBM Intelligence, the Southeastern states are suffering a kidnapping spree, including a sharp increase in abductions in Imo State.
Attacks spreading across rural communities
On Saturday, 27 June, 2026, armed Fulani terrorists reportedly kidnapped eight people, including 5 women, at Obokofia community in the Ohaji Egbema county of Imo State and are demanding ransom ranging between ₦5m ($3,600) and ₦40m ($28,700) per person.
Earlier on 10 June, 2026, a survivor, Prince Wisdom Nwauwa, who was kidnapped by Fulani terrorists, along the Ogbaku-Ejemakuru-Akabo Road in Oguta county of Imo state said that his family paid ₦10 million ($7,000) to secure his release. “Items demanded by the Fulani kidnappers during negotiation with the survivor’s family include; cooked rice, water, cigarettes and Indian hemp”, said Nwauwa in a video.
According to him, the kidnappers gave him two options. He either pays the ransom on time or his kidney will be harvested.
Nwauwa however did not disclose how the ransom was delivered and how he got out from the kidnappers’ den.
The Ordeal of a Pork Producer
After spending 8 days with his Fulani abductors in a forest located in Ndegwu, a small farming community in Owerri West county of Imo state, Mr. Ekpemarachi Ogbonna said his life may never be the same.
In the evening hours of Friday, May 15, 2026, a group of armed Fulani terrorists stormed a pig farm in the outskirts of Oforola community in Owerri west county of Imo state, located in the southeastern part of Nigeria, abducted a pig farmer, Mr. Ekpemarachi Ogbonna and marched him through the forests across three communities to a hideout 45 kilometers away. After narrowly escaping execution, Ogbonna was released on May 23.
Speaking during an exclusive interview with TruthNigeria, Ogbonna narrated his ordeal in the hands of his abductors.
“I was working in my pigsty at about 6 pm on Friday 15 May, 2026, when a group of armed men stormed the place, shot at my assistant who escaped into the bush, then pointed their gun at me and ordered me to follow them”, Ogbonna told TruthNigeria.
“They marched me through the forests from Oforola to Obosima and we continued walking until we got to Adapalm,” he continued.
“From Adapalm, I lost track of the routes we followed and after several hours of trekking, we arrived at Amakohia – Ubi and later to Ndegwu.
“I was the first victim to arrive at their camp but after two days, they brought three more victims.
“ They gave us little food sometimes and we drank dirty puddles by the roadside.
“ When they were communicating among themselves, they spoke Fulani dialect.
“ They threatened to kill me and harvest my kidney if my family failed to pay a ₦10 million naira ransom ($7,000)
“ 8 days later, we were rescued by a combined team of local vigilantes, the police and the military but not before the kidnappers killed one of the victims and fatally stabbed an old man.
Also speaking to TruthNigeria, a pig caretaker, Mr. Promise Ugochukwu, who witnessed Ogbonna’s abduction corroborated his story.
“ My boss and I were feeding the pigs at about 6 pm on 15 May, 2026 when armed men stormed our pigsty and immediately I saw them. I jumped the wall and ran into the bush”. Ugochuchukwu told TruthNigeria.
Ogbonna’s abduction took place barely 48 hours after one person was killed and an unspecified number of people abducted by armed Fulani terrorists in Eziobodo, a local community located near Oforola.
The attack, which was not the first of its kind in the area fuelled tension and confusion in the community, according to Vanguard.
Vigilantes, Youths Launch Rescues
Local communities in the southeastern part of Nigeria are recruiting groups of young men into their local community guards, (usually dubbed “vigilantes”) and are relying on self–help efforts to equip the operatives and pay them a good salary, TruthNigeria has learned.
Aside from their primary duty of assisting the police to arrest local criminals, the local community guards in the southeast secure their communities from attacks by Fulani terrorists. For instance, on Wednesday, 10 June, 2026, a local guards group from Ohuhu community in Abia state rescued 2 persons, Mrs Onyinyechi Ekechukwu and Mr Dennis Okechi who were kidnapped by Fulani terrorists.
“The community immediately activated its local vigilantes and reached out to conventional security agencies, including the Police and the Military, but the urgency of the situation demanded immediate action, so the armed vigilantes and dozens of other volunteers moved into the forest with hunting dogs, torchlights, machetes and other weapons”, said the President General (P.G) of the community, Mr. Chimex Uluocha, in a statement.
“A member of the Homeland Security outfit advised against a stealth approach because the abductors were armed and could easily harm the victims if they realised they were being surrounded, so we decided to make enough noise from different directions to confuse them and prevent them from taking any coordinated action,” Uluocha added.
Ebere Inyama is a conflict reporter for TruthNigeria.
