Veritas University lecturer Izuchukwu Anyanwu, abducted from his Abuja home in September 2023, escaped his captors after months in the forest, only to be kidnapped again by a different armed group. He was eventually released on February 4, 2024, the day his daughter turned one, according to a detailed account published by The New Yorker Magazine.
Escape from one gang, capture by another
Anyanwu's ordeal began when he was taken from his home near Veritas University in Abuja's Bwari area. After months of captivity, he seized an opportunity to flee when a guard suffered a seizure, allowing hostages to obtain the keys to their shackles. He ran for nine hours through the forest, driven by the hope of seeing his daughter on her first birthday.
Exhausted, he slept under a tree and later crossed a ravine where he saw cigarette butts and human skulls. Eventually, he met a Fulani herdsman who let him use a phone. He called his wife, Immaculata, expecting relief, but instead learned she had just paid another ransom of about $4,500 to the people who had been holding him, unaware he had escaped.
After the call, the herdsman also made a call, and four men from different bandit groups arrived with AK-47s. They initially appeared sympathetic, gave him food and medicine, but at night chained him up and demanded another ransom. Anyanwu's nightmare had restarted.
The initial abduction and captivity
The story began in September 2023 when armed men broke into Anyanwu's home around midnight. According to his account, 17 armed men entered, some carrying AK-47s, machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. They forced Anyanwu and Sunday Ujah, a 20-year-old who lived with the family, to lie on the floor, collected food and drinks, and then led them into the forest, also abducting a local trader from a neighbouring home.
The kidnappers kept hostages in a cave near Tunga Maje. When Anyanwu revealed he was a university lecturer, the group demanded ₦150 million for his release and that of Ujah. His family struggled to raise the money, and the kidnappers used violence during ransom calls. Anyanwu said he was beaten with machetes, wires, and gun butts while his relatives listened.
The family eventually raised about $6,000, but the kidnappers kept him, saying it was insufficient. Their leader threatened to cut off one of Anyanwu's legs and made him choose which one. He picked his left leg and placed it on a rock, but the order was withdrawn as his captors decided they could get more money.
As months passed, Anyanwu's condition deteriorated. His clothes became ragged, his slippers unusable, and he lost so much weight that his captors mocked him as “skeleton”. Food was often just white rice, and water was dirty. By December, Ujah and two other hostages escaped, but Anyanwu remained.
Release and aftermath
In January 2024, the guard's seizure provided the chance for escape. After his second capture, Anyanwu was eventually released on February 4, the day his daughter turned one. His sister sent money, food, phone cards, power banks, solar panels, and two motorcycles through local motorcycle taxi drivers. One driver dropped him near a highway, and his sister took him to a hotel, then to hospital for evaluation.
Returning home, Anyanwu struggled to recognise his wife, who had lost considerable weight, and his daughter did not recognise him. “I couldn’t recognise my wife. My baby didn’t know me,” Anyanwu recalled. His wife said, “My life was shattered. I was traumatised and very depressed. But I didn’t give up.”
The family was left with debts from ransom payments, and although they wanted to leave Nigeria, they could not afford to start over. Anyanwu said there was no formal institutional support waiting for him. Friends, relatives, his church, and the university helped where they could, but he has struggled to sleep before midnight, around the time the first kidnappers broke in.
Veritas University, in Abuja's Bwari area, has experienced repeated kidnappings and violent crime. The university has added security measures and moved classes online during heightened insecurity. In 2022, Veritas lecturer Dr John Adole escaped kidnappers in Benue State, and in 2025, student Cornelius Damulak was abducted in Bwari and later escaped.
