Some abducted victims recently freed from captivity have revealed that kidnappers used poisonous snakes to terrorise them.
The victims, while recounting their ordeals, said there were many poisonous snakes in the forests inhabited by the bandits.
They disclosed that the snakes often bite both the kidnappers and the victims.
One of the abducted victims, who craved anonymity, said the kidnappers threw them into snake-infested spots.
The victim said: “The kidnappers know the areas are infested with snakes and would often throw the victims there.
“Immediately they see snakes, the fear-stricken victims will want to run away. The sight is used to frighten people.
“That is the time a victim can ask friends and family members to sell everything – house, land, cars, household items, shoes, just everything – to raise the ransom.”
It was gathered that the worst snake-infested forests are in Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State and Kala-Balge, near Lake Chad, in Borno State.
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Other areas include Shaki in Oyo State, Borgu and Kagara in Niger State, Karim Lamido in Adamawa State, and Lau in Taraba State.
Some of the victims said the situation is now worse with the current heat as snakes leave their holes in search of fresh air and food.
“The nights are often more traumatising. You are left outside, in the dark, and a reptile may just creep through your legs.
“While I was in captivity, snakes bit some victims. The kidnappers were not spared as some of them also got bitten,” a victim, who was taken to a thick forest in Kagara in Niger State, told NAN.
He added that in Kagara forest, the snakes are common and the locals refer to them as ‘Kadangarun Kagara (Kagara lizards)’.
Prof. Abdulsalam Nasidi, the Chairman of Echitap Study Group, the outfit in charge of Echitap Anti-SnakeVenom (ASV), who spoke on the development, confirmed that banditry was associated with areas prone to snake bites.
Nasidi, whose group collaborates with Micropharm UK Limited and Instituto Clodomiro Picardo (ICP) in Costa Rica to bring the drugs to Nigeria, decried the rising cases of snake bites in Nigeria.
While confirming that some abductees returned with snakebite wounds, he said the cost of treatment could only be affordable if the ASV drugs were produced locally.
He said: “The ASV manufacturers are ready to collaborate with us to produce the ASV in Nigeria.
“It is only when we produce ASV locally in Nigeria that we can make it available at a reduced cost.
“The rise in the value of the dollar has made the cost of foreign production so high that the poor man, who in most cases is the victim of snake bites, cannot afford it.
“In the past, villagers used to contribute money to purchase ASV, which is no longer possible.”
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