‘23 minutes felt like 3 hours’

Days af­ter four armed ban­dits held a Cunu­pia fam­i­ly hostage at gun­point in their home for 23 min­utes and ter­rorised them, de­mand­ing cash and valu­ables, the fam­i­ly is now con­tem­plat­ing leav­ing this coun­try for good.

The fam­i­ly of four, who did not want their names and any iden­ti­fy­ing in­for­ma­tion about them pub­lished, told Guardian Me­dia on Sun­day, “Those 23 min­utes felt like three hours.”

One mem­ber of the fam­i­ly re­called, “They had us down on the ground while they ran­sacked the house, de­mand­ing where the mon­ey and gold were. And ever so of­ten, they would come and cock the gun by our heads to fright­en us.”