Abducted victims just lately free of captivity have narrated how kidnappers used toxic snakes to terrorise them.
Some of them, who recounted their ordeals in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), stated that there have been many snakes within the forests inhabitated by the bandits.
They stated that the snakes usually bit each the abductors and the victims.
One of them, who craved anonymity, informed NAN that kidnappers threw them into snake-infested spots.
“The kidnappers know the areas infested with snakes and would usually throw the victims there.
“Immediately they see snakes, the fear-stricken victims will need to run away. The sight is used to frighten individuals.
“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.”
NAN investigation revealed that the worst snake-infested forests are in Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State, and Kala-Balge, close to Lake Chad, in Borno State.
Other areas included Shaki in Oyo State, Borgu and Kagara in Niger, Karim Lamido in Adamawa State, and Lau in Taraba State.
Some of the survivors informed NAN that the scenario is worse how with the present warmth as snakes depart their holes in the hunt for recent air and meals.
“The nights are sometimes extra traumatising. You are left exterior, at nighttime, and a reptile may creep by way of your legs.
“While I was in captivity, snakes bit some victims. The kidnappers were not spared as some of them also got bitten,” a sufferer, who was taken to a thick forest in Kagara, in Niger, informed NAN.
According to him, in Kagara forest, the snakes are so frequent that the locals seek advice from them as “kadangarun Kagara (Kagara lizards).”
Rising circumstances of snake bites
Abdulsalam Nasidi, a professor and Chairman, Echitap Study Group, the outfit accountable for Echitap Anti-Snake Venom(ASV), who spoke on the event, confirmed that banditry was related to areas vulnerable to snake bites.
Mr Nasidi, whose group collaborates with Micropharm UK Ltd and Instituto Clodomiro Picardo (ICP), Costa Rica, to carry the medication to Nigeria, decried the rising circumstances of snake bites in Nigeria.
“Unfortunately for us, the cost of snake bite treatment has gone well beyond the reach of the poor,” he stated.
While confirming that some abductees certainly returned with snakebite wounds, he stated that the cost of remedy may solely be reasonably priced if the ASV medication have been produced regionally.
“The ASV producers are able to collaborate with us to supply the ASV in Nigeria.
“It is simply after we produce ASV regionally in Nigeria that we will make it available at a lowered cost.
“The rise within the worth of the greenback has made the cost of international manufacturing so excessive that the poor man who, usually, is the sufferer of snake bites, can not afford it.
“In the previous, villagers used to contribute money to buy ASV, that’s not attainable.
“An ample of the Echitap G ASV, which takes care of venoms from a carpet viper, prices 59 Pounds manufacturing unit worth. 97 per cent of toxic snake chunk circumstances in Nigeria are from carpet vipers.
“For Echitap plus ICP ASV, which treats venom from puff adder, carpet viper and black cobra, an ample is 24 {dollars} manufacturing unit worth.
“If you add the cost of transportation from the two countries – UK and Costa Rica – plus the charges for clearance at the ports, the price becomes a different thing.”
He recognized essentially the most toxic snakes in Nigeria as carpet viper, puff adder and black cobra.
“But, we even have an equally dangerous snake – Black Mamba – in Abuja. So, we also need an ASV for it,” he stated.
According to him, previously, Nigerians bitten by snakes had 40 per cent probabilities of survival.
“But, if the black mamba is added, the chances shrink to 10 per cent. It means we desperately need to produce ASV locally,” he stated.
On kidnappers intentionally exposing their victims to snakes, he identified that snakes have no idea the distinction between a kidnapper and his sufferer.
He lamented the prevalence of snake bites amongst poor Nigerians that have been already hungry.
“If a snake bites a hungry person, his case is only pathetic as he is already economically traumatised without much hope,” he stated.
He significantly condemned the inhuman behaviour of exposing abductees to snake bites, and regretted the “zero” premium placed on human life.
“From the accounts of victims, kidnapped people could see a snake coming toward them and are not allowed to run. Nothing is more traumatising.”
Nasidi stated that his group had submitted a proposal to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for the native manufacturing of ASV.
“The proposal has been accredited and we’re ready for the money to start up.
“The foreign manufacturers are ready to offer the technology. So, we are hopeful that we shall soon start local production of ASV,” he stated.
Mr Nasidi suggested Nigerians to watch out whereas shifting at night time, noting that snakes have been shifting nearer to human habitats.
“We must all be very watchful and observant. Treating snake bites is very expensive. So, prevention is better than any form of cure,” he stated.
(NAN)
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