Kidnappers use toxic snakes to terrorise us – Victims | The Guardian Nigeria News

Abducted victims just lately free of captivity have revealed that kidnappers use 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 typically chunk 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 typically throw the victims there.

“Immediately they see snakes, the fear-stricken victims will need to run away. The sight is used to frighten folks.

“That is the time a sufferer can ask family and friends members to promote all the things – home, land, automobiles, home goods, footwear, simply all the things – to boost 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.

Other areas included Shaki in Oyo State, Borgu and Kagara in Niger, Karim Lamido in Adamawa, and Lau in Taraba.

Some of the victims informed NAN that the scenario is worse now with the present warmth as snakes depart their holes in the hunt for contemporary air and meals.

“The nights are sometimes extra traumatising. You are left outdoors, at midnight, and a reptile could creep by means of your legs.

“While I used to be in captivity, snakes bit some victims. The kidnappers weren’t spared as a few of them additionally bought 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).”

Prof. Abdulsalam Nasidi, 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 liable to snake bites.

Nasidi, whose group collaborates with Micropharm UK Ltd and Instituto Clodomiro Picardo (ICP), Costa Rica, to convey the medication to Nigeria, decried the rising circumstances of snake bites in Nigeria.

“Unfortunately for us, the cost of snake chunk therapy has gone nicely past the attain of the poor,” he stated.

While confirming that some abductees certainly returned with snakebite wounds, he stated that the cost of therapy might solely be inexpensive if the ASV medication had been produced regionally.

“The ASV producers are able to collaborate with us to provide the ASV in Nigeria.

“It is simply after we produce ASV regionally in Nigeria that we are able to 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, generally, is the sufferer of snake bites, can not afford it.

“In the previous, villagers used to contribute money to buy ASV, that’s now not potential.

“An ample of the Echitap G ASV, which takes care of venoms from a carpet viper, prices 59 Pounds manufacturing facility 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 facility worth.

“If you add the cost of transportation from the 2 nations – UK and Costa Rica – plus the fees for clearance on the ports, the value turns into a unique factor.”

He recognized essentially the most toxic snakes in Nigeria as carpet viper, puff adder and black cobra.

“But, we even have an equally harmful snake – Black Mamba – in Abuja. So, we additionally want an ASV for it,” he stated.

According to him, up to now, Nigerians bitten by snakes had 40 per cent possibilities of survival.

“But, if the black mamba is added, the possibilities shrink to 10 per cent. It means we desperately want to provide ASV regionally,” 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 who had been already hungry.

“If a snake bites a hungry person, his case is simply pathetic as he’s already economically traumatised with out a lot hope.”

He notably 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 folks might see a snake coming towards them and are usually not allowed to run. Nothing is extra 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 permitted and we’re ready for the money to start up.

“The international producers are prepared to supply the know-how. So, we’re hopeful that we will quickly begin native manufacturing of ASV,” he stated.

Nasidi suggested Nigerians to watch out whereas shifting at evening, noting that snakes had been shifting nearer to human habitats.

“We should all be very watchful and observant. Treating snake bites could be very costly. So, prevention is healthier than any type of remedy,” he stated.