RADIO talkshow host and motivational speaker Kingsley Stewart, better known to some as “Ragashanti”, was counting his blessings yesterday after surviving a gruelling three-hour abduction, during which his car was stolen and his life repeatedly threatened.

Visibly shaken and hardly the gregarious persona he portrays on the radio, Stewart recounted to the Observer that the armed men pounced on him as he walked towards his Mitsubishi Pajero SUV in the parking lot of the Social Sciences Faculty at the University of the West Indies (UWI).

“After teaching a class that ran from five to seven, I was going to my vehicle to leave the campus .I was held up by two gunmen and forced into my vehicle. (I was) Then taken off campus, tied up, blindfolded then placed in the trunk of a car,” Stewart said, a tinge of anxiety in his voice.

After being driven around for more than an hour, blind and bound, Stewart said the men abruptly stopped the car and came for him.

“They were going to kill me, [but] when they found out who I was, them say (expletives deleted) a Ragashanti dis whe always a defend ghetto yute. We cyaan kill da man yah,” Stewart said.

“Me an dem a reason the whole time. Them have my vehicle a sell it.Their thing was they need to hold me a while until the person finish selling the vehicle, they were in conversation with that person by phone, ’till they conclude the transaction with that vehicle then they would release me,” he said.

Having finished their business, the robbers took Stewart to a nearby playing field and released him.

“They took me up topside Elletson Flats, came out of the vehicle and put me on my face with the gun. The car drove off, and I heard a bike ride up. The one with the gun went on the bike and left,” he said.

After waiting a few minutes to be sure that the men were gone, Stewart got up and managed to make his way to safety.

He maintained that throughout the ordeal, his thoughts wavered between his family and good friends, and resigning himself to an untimely death.

“It’s the simple, small things in life that really mattered at that moment, and good friends. those [I] care about and those that care about [me]. Those were the things that really mattered to me at that moment,” said the university lecturer.

“There was a mixture of feelings, there are times when I resigned myself that I would be dead, that I would be killed. I was reasoning all sorts of things and saying that they (the gunmen) would think that they had to kill me.”

Some moments, however, saw him producing some positive thoughts.

“Then there was another side of me that never gave up, and I remember at one point concluding that this thing is psychological, I can get inside their heads and bring them to a point where it is less likely that they would want to kill me.if I speak the right way and behave the right way I could determine the outcome,” he said.

During the ‘reasoning’ session with his kidnappers, Stewart, a lecturer in Cultural Studies at UWI, said he gained first-hand insight into Jamaican criminality.

“Interestingly we were talking about the crime problem in Jamaica. They were offering their accounts as to why we have all these crime problems. They were being unapologetic in what they do and they were saying that they will not stop, that them born fi kill people,” Stewart said.

“They took my licensed firearm and one of them said, ‘After yuh go through dis y’know, I don’t want yuh go back go pick up no gun cause if yuh have a gun then people like me goin look for you,’ then the next one said, ‘No, ah wha yuh a tell di man [to Stewart], get yuh gun cause people will rob yuh and try fi kill yuh and yuh must shoot dem kill dem’. These are the people robbing me at gunpoint,” Stewart said.

In another instance, Stewart said the men exhorted him not to migrate because of the robbery, but rather stay and help to build the country.

“On another occasion they said: ‘Yow, me know say dis thing rough and tough y’know, but nuh bodda get fraid and leave the country because we need people like you to make the country better’, that was kinda surreal,” said Stewart.

Although he has drawn much criticism for the move, Stewart has extended his public gratitude to the gunmen for sparing his life.

“People are saying why am I thanking gunmen who infringed on my freedom and caused me undue stress and all that, but the bottom line in they’re doing what they’re doing, I’m not condoning it, but they could have taken it further. I am publicly thanking them for not killing me and I’m encouraging them not to kill anymore people either,” he said.

At the same time, Stewart maintained that while his zeal to speak out for the people of the inner city has not been shaken in spite of the incident, he would be taking more strict measures regarding his personal safety.

“My sense of security has been significantly dented, particularly [at] the university because part of the reason that this happened here is that I’m generally very comfortable here and generally very at ease here. Unfortunately I’m going to be making some adjustments.,” he said.