Delta Woman Held Hostage by Lover for 9 Years Regains Freedom

A woman from Delta State who was held hostage by her lover for nine years, has finally regained her freedom.

Her lover reportedly abducted her nine years ago because her family was against their relationship and refused to let them get married, The Sun reports. To protect the woman and her children’s identities, their names have been withheld.

Because he wanted to be with her at all costs, he abducted her and kept her in captivity for years until she escaped recently.

The man had been hiding her in a wooden house he built specially for her in the Okerube area of Abaranje, Ikotun, Lagos. Sources say she gave birth to her four children in the house, with her lover playing the role of a midwife.

He kept her imprisoned by locking the house whenever he went out to the market to buy food for them, and by threatening to kill her if she ever tried to escape.

However, she got her chance to escape when he suddenly fell ill three weeks ago and was unable to go out to buy food. She then told him that he must go out and find food, as she and the children hadn’t eaten for days.

As he was going out, he forgot to lock the house. While he was away, she wandered out of the house with her children, and people in the neighbourhood were shocked to see them, as they didn’t know the woman and her children lived there.

Eyewitnesses say the woman appeared to be disoriented, but was very well spoken. She told the people who had gathered around her to call her sister. Luckily, she could remember her sister’s telephone number. Her sister is said to have arrived shortly after, and took the woman and her children away.

Sources say when the man came back, he was upset to discover that his family had disappeared, and kept shouting “I hate human beings, that is why I isolated myself and my family from them. Can you imagine?”

It is unclear whether the case has been reported to the police.

Photo Credit: The Sun