Josie Beth Gregorio Foroozan, the Filipino woman believed to have faked her abduction in Nigeria, told the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Thursday that armed men dressed like policemen indeed “kidnapped” her on Feb 6 in Port Harcourt, led her to the Lagos Airport and convinced her that her husband wanted to have her killed.
In a sworn statement given before NBI agent Jeralyn Jalagat, the 37-year-old businesswoman said her abductors told her, “You know it was your husband who sent us to kill you.”
At the time the Philippine and Nigerian governments were trying to locate her in Nigeria, Foroozan turned out to be just several meters away from the NBI headquarters in Manila.
She said she arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport(NAIA) at 8:30 a.m. on February 10, three days after her purported abduction, and stayed at the Park Hotel in Paco, Manila until March 4.
It also turned out that her family knew since February that she was back in Manila, contrary to her younger sister�s claim in interviews on March 9 that Foroozan never had contacted any member of the Gregorio family.
Foroozan said she called her sister Elsa on February 17 or 18 when she learned their mother was sick worrying about her. Elsa even visited her in her hotel on February 22, and her father also stayed with her on February 26.
She said she followed them to Occidental Mindoro on March 4
It was only on March 9 that she contacted her husband when she was convinced he had nothing to do with her abduction. She said she called her cousin Janet Griego in Nigeria who told her Manoucher was really upset and worried since her disappearance.
Foroozan said the armed men who took her away did not hurt her. They only took the $5,000 she offered them when she was pleading them to release her.
It was Foroozan’s sister, Jane Gregorio, who alerted the media in Manila about the abduction. Gregorio said Foroozan’s Iranian husband, Manoucher, phoned her on the evening of Feb 7 and informed her of her elder sister’s kidnapping near a bank some two kilometers from her home in Port Harcourt.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. surprised many Filipinos on Thursday when he said Foroozan was not kidnapped, but has actually returned to the Philippines three days after she was reported to have been kidnapped.
When Foroozan showed up at the NBI headquarters in downtown Manila on Wednesday, March 14, she told reporters she wanted to �put to rest reports that (she) was abducted and even killed in Nigeria.”
�I would just like to say that I am here, safe and sound,” she said. �I have come to the NBI to give a formal statement.”
Yes, she was kidnapped
Foroozan’s version of her abduction will make a good piece for a movie script.
In her sworn statement, Foroozan declared: �Yes, I was kidnapped by armed men dressed as policemen in Port Harcourt. Nigeria last 7 February 2007.”
�At around 10 a.m., while I was driving my Mercedes Benz two-seater car along Amadi St., Harcourt, Nigeria, and on my way to Platinum Bank, I saw a group of policemen driving beside me in a Peugeot car. They signaled me to stop and then they drove in front of me. I thought that they were stopping me for a traffic violation, so I obliged,” said claimed.
She said two of the men approached her, and one immediately pulled her and covered her mouth with a foul-smelling piece of cloth in his hand, then dragged her into a mini-bus, then blindfolded her as they drove away.
Later, the men told her to call her husband, then one of them took the phone from her and talked to her husband. �We have your woman, we will call you later,” she quoted one of her abductors as saying.
Then, she said the men gave her phone back and allowed her to talk to her husband and narrated what happened to her.
Foroozan said she was born in Nueva Ecija in 1969, but her family settled in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. She has lived in Nigeria for almost 16 years with her husband with whom she has two children.
In good standing
The Foroozan couple has a construction company in Nigeria called Shahpar International Ltd. She also owned a shop called �The Persian Shop” in Harcourt selling Filipino and Iranian handicraft, foodstuff and other products.
They seemed to be in good standing in the community. Foroozan said she was recently elected secretary of the International Women�s Club in Port Harcourt. Her husband was treasurer of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha�l of Nigeria.
According to her, she was on her way to the bank to open an account and transfer money in foreign and local currency when the men accosted her. That time, she said she had US$10,000 and 50,000 Naira (about $400). She said had her passport with her because she was supposed to have it photocopied.
Going back to Manila
While in the hands of her abductors, Foroozan said told them she would leave Nigeria right away if only they would release her.
�When I said this, they asked me where I will go and I answered that if I could only reach Lagos, I will go back to my country and never say anything and they will never see me anymore,” Foroozan told the NBI investigator.
During the long ride, Foroozan said she was �so shocked�could not believe it.”
When the mini-bus stopped, one of the men ordered her to get down and they walked. She said she thought she would be shot while walking barefoot, so she just prayed and continued to beg for freedom.
�After several minutes, he took off my blindfold. It was already dark, but I could see that we were close to the Lagos International Airport,” Foroozan said. �The man told me to continue walking to the airport. He said that he will be following me so I should not look back at him or talk or say anything to anyone. Otherwise he will shoot me.”
As they approached the airport gate, the man handed her a pair of slippers. She lost her slippers when two men dragged her to the mini-bus in Port Harcourt.
�We entered the airport together. I then looked for the earliest scheduled flight to Manila, got my ticket at Lufthansa Airlines and then checked in. The man was behind me all the time. Then, before I went to the immigration control for my departure, I talked to the man and gave him my cellphone. I told him that since it was my husband who sent them to kill me, then he should call my husband and inform him that I am already dead,” Foroozan said.
The Lufthansa flight she took left Lagos at 11 p.m., and stopped over in Frankfurt, Germany at 6 a.m. the next day. Then, she said she was supposed to take the earliest flight to Manila that left Frankfurt at 10:20 p.m., but missed it because she did not hear the announcement when her flight was called, so she had to wait another 24 hours for the next flight.
While waiting for her flight at the Frankfurt airport, Foroozan said she watched the news on CNN about her abduction. She said she did not report it immediately because she believed her abductors that her husband sent them to kill her. – GMANews.TV