Fears of 101-year old twice-kid
Court documents say Pa Atser Kyausa, father of Benue millionaire, Chief Athansius Iordye Kyausu is 101 years old. In the last six years, he had been kidnapped twice from his residence. With one of his kidnappers recently bagging life imprisonment for the
Chief Atser Kyausu is 101 years old. He should be allowed to live out the rest of his days in peace. But for some reason, this old man has been kidnapped for ransom on two different occasions.
At his home at Mbagbiantwer, in the upper area of Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State, from where he had twice been abducted, he sits on a wooden chair and issues admonition to young people to avoid the ‘get rich quick syndrome’ and work their way to the top.
Pa Atser could be referring to Aondona Atim, who recently bagged life imprisonment for abducting the old man from his Vandekiya residence in July 2015. His two other accomplices were killed by the police in a separate incident.
His second abduction was in December 2017. He had vivid recollections of that first incident. Clad in a traditional attire draped around his shoulders, his wife seated close by, the old man recounts the first time he was abducted in July 2015, his twoday ordeal in the kidnappers’ den and the subsequent trial that convicted his kidnapper almost six years after.
“It happened on a certain Saturday in 2015,” he said. “Four young men who rode on two Bajaj motorcycles barged into my home. On that night, I went to sleep with one of my sons in his room. So, they got hold of my last wife; this is the cloth I had put on that night (pointing to the fabric over his shoulders.)
“They asked her to show them where I was. My wife told them that I went to the hospital. And they said I did not. So, they held her by her cloth and slapped her twice on the face while pointing the gun at her.”
His first wife was not around and Pa Kyausu heard this exchange from his room, where he and his young son, Terpenda, were.
“So, my wife burst into tears, while calling my little son, Terpenda, to open the door. Once Terpenda did, they rushed into where I was sleeping and took hold of me, removed my cloth and threw it away,” he said.
There was a reason Pa Kyausu was targeted and that soon became clear. The gunmen asked him to give him the money his son had sent to him for his upkeep.
Pa Kyausu is the father of one of Benue’s leading business tycoons, Chief Athansius Iordye Kyausu, an oil magnate popularly known as ‘Kyabiz.’ He was not surprised that they would make such demand on him.
“I told them that my son did not give me money to keep. They said again that I should produce the money my son had given me to keep and hand it over to them. I told them again that my son did not give me money to keep,” he said.
This back and forth went on for a while with the gunmen insisting he had money in the house. They believed his son sent him money every week and when he told them that wasn’t the case, they asked him for his life savings.
“I told them I don’t have much. I had only N7, 700 and it was on the table. They picked the money and said they will take me away,” he said.
They led him out and sat him on one of their motorcycles. They then tied up his eyes and rode off with him.
“We went until I felt dews on my legs,” he said. “Then we entered a tunnel that led into a house. Once we got into that house, they asked me about my phone. I told them that I left it on the bed when they seized me. And they said they will go and bring it.
“Meanwhile, they had the phone with them. It was not long when they went out that they came back with it and said they’ve gone and brought the phone,” he said.
Apparently aware that his first son the tycoon had travelled, they asked for the name of his second son and he told them.
“The following day, they told me that they’ve asked my eldest son, Iordye, to give them N20 million to secure my freedom or I will not go back alive; that they would bury me alive. They also told me that my children are wealthy, yet they don’t give them money, only giving it to the police and soldiers on the highway. And since my children have refused to give them money, they will put them to shame by ensuring that they do not have the benefit of a tomb for their father,” he said.
The recollection of those words, that experience made the old man shudder and nod his head slowly.
He spent two days with the four kidnappers and on the third day, the police rescued him.
Pa Kyausu said something had triggered the attack on him. That day, he had opened his house to an artisan, a chainsaw operator, he had hired to do some work for him.
“One of them, who was left behind as a guard told me that one of them, who worked for me, told them I had a lot of money in the house. According to him, the fragrance from the money I paid him indicated this. And so, they should follow him to go and pick the money.
“What wrong have I done by paying someone for the work done for me?” the 101-year-old asked.
Despite the traumatic experience, Pa Kyausu, has no plans to leave his home.
“Would I have to leave my house here to go and live elsewhere? I have placed myself in the hands of God. I don’t engage in magical practices to say that I’ll fortify myself against kidnappers and to disappear when they come,” he said.
Pa Kyausu is worried about the kidnapping trend. He is even more worried that the kidnappers are mostly young men. And he is gravely worried that they target old men.
“I am advising young people to understand that life is not a do or die race. They should stop abducting old people for money.
“Life is slow and steady. That was the advice I gave my son; he bought a car and asked me to tell him what to write on it and I told him to write: Life is slow and steady,” Pa Kyausu said.
The first time he was abducted, he did not see it coming. When his kidnappers came to his house and called his name, he gingerly walked out of his room to meet them and was met by four young men.
“They were behaving as if they wanted to get hold of me, but I moved away from them. And they asked if I was afraid, so I asked them to tell me why they were in my house. They said they were sorry, I should go back to bed. It was still on a Saturday, in the year 2015; they told me to go to bed that they will come back the following day to tell me why they were in my house. But they came back, the following Saturday, exactly one week after and could not find me in the main house because I had joined my son, Terpenda, in his own room,” he said.
During his abduction, he was not manhandled. He was only poorly fed. Since his rescue, he said he had not been feeling the same. Now he has health challenges with his eyes, waist and legs ever since then.
“They were giving me only three pieces of bean cakes (akara) in the morning and then evening,” he said.
The experience has left him exhibiting symptoms of PTSD.
“Whenever I go to bed, my mind would be racing as if they would come again. My daughter, truly if not for God, whenever one is abducted, the person may die there because the captors will be threatening their victim with a gun.