Belarus woman reveals details of Nigeria hostage ordeal
Nigerian militants kidnapped the Belarusian woman in the town of Port Hapcourt in the evening of May 5. Irina, the mother of four, was held hostage for 11 days before she was saved. During the attack, kidnappers shot through her leg. After the release, wounded and suffering from blood poisoning and malaria, she was immediately airlifted to a London hospital.
The European Radio for Belarus called Irina’s brother, Aleg Givoin who told us how Irina past her time while in Belarus. Before coming to her home land, Irina underwent another medical examination at a London hospital. The British doctors told her that the leg was healing badly and that she was facing bone transplantation. However, the Belarusian medics came to another conclusion.
“She had a full medical examination at the Institute of Traumatic Surgery in Minsk. Our doctors said that no clavus was growing and there was no need for another surgery. The bone is healing well,” the brother said.
With her health status as a priority, Irina had no time to travel around Belarus and visit all of her relatives. On Sunday, September 16 she flew back to Nigeria, where she continues to work with the same British company.
It is now confirmed by Aleg Givoin that ransom was indeed paid in order to free Irina.
“Irina said that only she and the company know the amount of the ransom paid. She had a very good insurance package, so it was the insurance company that suffered the losses,” Givoin said.
Irina also said that the identities of “mysterious militants” were not a secret to her.
“It is no problem for her to track down those eight men that kidnapped her. But since she has to live and work there, she will not hunt for them. All the kidnappings there are linked with politics. The kidnappers were just collecting money for the governor’s election campaign,” Aleg Givoin said.
Telling about her liberation, Irina described the level of the local security services as very low.
“They were not professional. The kidnappers left her alone on a road and called the local security agency to tell them her whereabouts. Irina had lied there for two hours before the same kidnappers came and took her on another road. It turned out that the security agency had no knowledge of the previous road,” Givoin said.
Irina Ekpo-Uma has returned to work in Nigeria. She will not try to punish her kidnappers, and has promised to visit Belarus when the first opportunity pops up.
Photo: minsk.kp.ru
