Adding the fear of snake bites to the trauma of their recent kidnap by bandits is a terrible experience for abductees but that is what most have found themselves confronting while awaiting the payment of their ransom in a remote forest.

By the time they have regained their freedom, the affected ones, in addition to getting other palliative health treatment due to fatigue, also have to be injected with costly anti-snake-venom (ASV) in order not to fall sick or die.

The victims of such incidents have been speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) which has gathered that the bandits, whether operating in the northern axis like Kaduna or the southwest state of Oyo, have been applying scary tactics to get the abductees to part with the ransom pay quickly.

After their capture by the kidnappers, captives are deliberately taken to a forest area known to inhabit deadly snakes. The reptiles spare neither the abductees nor their captors of deadly venom.

The kidnappers, according to a victim who didn’t want to be named, know the areas infested with snakes and would often throw the victims there.

Immediately they see snakes, the fear-stricken victims will want to run away. The sight is used to frighten people.

That is the time a victim can ask friends and family members to sell everything – house, land, cars, household items, shoes, just everything – to raise the ransom.

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Weather matters for how severe the snake attacks can be. With the Wet Season yet to commence, serpents crawl out of their holes in search of food and cooling and this is when they encounter unexpected human presence.

Based on what the news agency has gathered, the worst attacks happened in Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State, and then in Kala-Balge, in Borno. All of which occur under constrained access to anti-venoms.

As the problem of banditry does not seem like one that will go away so soon, there are already moves going on to ensure localised production of ASVs to secure affordability.

The rise in the value of the dollar has made the cost of foreign production so high that the poor man who, in most cases, is the victim of snake bites, cannot afford it, says Echitap Study Group chairman, Prof. Abdulsalam Nasidi.

With the cost of a carpet viper antivenom reaching up to ₦112,000, it makes snake bite treatment for an average Nigerian beyond reach. If a snake bites a hungry person, Prof. Nasidi says, his case is only pathetic as he is already economically traumatised without much hope.

A request submitted by the Echitap Study Group to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been approved and we are waiting for the money to start up.

The foreign manufacturers are ready to offer the technology. So, we are hopeful that we shall soon start local production of ASV.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.