The Retired Presiding Justice, Court of Appeal, Owerri Division, Justice Rita Nosakhare Pemu has attributed her survival in the hands of kidnappers to the grace and mercy of God.
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She stated made this known to Vanguard while sharing her unforgettable encounter with men of the underworld on the 21st of February, 2022.
According to the Jurist who gracefully retired on March 6, 2023 after 45 years in judicial service, on February 20, 2022, she flew in from Lagos to Benin and told her supporting staff to go ahead of her in two cars.
She narrated further, “My personal assistant, a housemaid and two drivers went ahead of me on the trip to Benin. One of the drivers was driving a Hilux and the other one was driving a minibus with Court of Appeal written on it. I told them to go ahead to Benin and we met when I flew into Benin. I finished what I had to do in Benin and decided to return to Owerri, Imo State.
As we prepared for the trip, my PA was a bit rattled because ordinarily, before then, I would have told him to make my flight arrangements. But I didn’t tell him anything and he wasn’t sure what was going on. After a while, it dawned on him that I wanted to travel by road and that was exactly what I did.
On the day of the trip, there was this fine dress that I decided to wear but as I prepared for the trip, I just tossed the dress aside and decided to wear something simple.
So I wore a very simple dress with a facial cap and a pair of slippers. I told my staff that I want to experience how it is to travel by road. They initially refused to allow me travel with them saying that the roads were bad and that the trip would not be comfortable for me.
But of course I had already made up my mind to go with them by road. Instead of entering the Hilux which was my official car, I decided to join my staff in the minibus.”
She continued, “While on the trip, we got to a particular place and saw people doing a detour because there was an accident in front. So I gave the permission that we should follow other cars on the detour.
As we came out from the detour onto the expressway, suddenly a Hilux Jeep with fierce looking men all dressed in black t-shirts with AK-47 rifles cornered us. They came out of their car and said we should all come out.
They kept asking us where our boss was, but we didn’t respond. The free-flowing dress I wore obviously made me look like a maid, so they didn’t suspect that I was the boss.”
“They asked the minibus driver to show his identity card which he did. Immediately they started shooting sporadically in front of the car. We laid down on the terribly hot tarred road while they were shooting.
Something in me kept me confident throughout that ordeal because every time I raised my head and looked at their faces, they would avoid my eyes. There were five of them. As the gunshots were rattling the air, I told my staff to start pleading the blood of Jesus and they obeyed me.
They kept pleading the blood of Jesus and I told myself that even if we died in this experience, it would be better dying while pleading the blood of Jesus.
So we were chorusing the blood of Jesus and waiting to be shot. After some minutes, I asked my maid, where the kidnappers were and she said they had gone away.”
She said they were later led into a nearby cave by the kidnappers who went back to the road to continue their rein of havoc, and from there, they decided to escape.
“We got into the cave but surprisingly they didn’t follow us into the cave. They just left us there but we kept hearing gunshots everywhere. I took a quick decision and told my staff that we should just begin to run before stray bullets hit us inside the cave.
So we all began to run. I was far behind while my two staff that were obviouly younger were far ahead of me. I had a lot of bruises inside the bush while running. I have never ran such a race in my life.
Eventually, we got into a small village and people who saw us were surprised that the kidnappers did not kill us. They quickly helped us and put us on two okadas.
The okada man carrying me kept warning me to sit well to avoid him falling because I was just shaking on the okada. When we got to a point, we boarded a commercial tricycle popularly known as Keke Napep to Ihiala.”
According to her, it was one of the greatest experiences of her life and was well documented in her recent book publication and her survival attributed to the grace of God.
She noted, “I dedicated a chapter of the book I just launched, Evidence of Grace, to the experience. I titled that chapter: The efficacy of the Blood of Jesus. I had to title that chapter so because I am a beneficiary of the blood of Jesus. You can’t imagine the trauma of facing five fierce-looking men with AK-47 and still survive it.
That incident lasted from about 11:30am to 3:00pm. That was my first time of entering an okada and that ride meant a lot for me. I told my staff to take me a picture while inside the Keke Napep that took us to Orlu. It was one of the greatest ordeals of my life and I am happy that I am alive to share the experience.”
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