Baraka Abdulkarim, a 26-year old final year student at the School of Health, Makarfi, in Zaria, Kaduna State, who was kidnapped on December 1, 2024 and held in the den of the kidnappers for 13 days has narrated her ugly experience, one of which was watching how the kidnappers killed two children, who were also kidnapped, for walking slowly.
Baraka was abducted by bandits while on her way home from school and ended up spending 13 days in captivity.
A native of Oyo State, on the fateful day, Baraka was on his way from school in Zaria and heading to Funtua, Katsina State in a car she boarded along the road. In the car with her was another woman with her six children.
“When we got to a village called Maraba Maska, the driver stopped, claiming the fuel had finished and that he would call another car for us to board. We had to enter the new car,” Baraka recalled.
In the new car were four male Fulani passengers including the driver. Though not comfortable with the little space left in the car to accommodate her, the woman and her six children, she and the woman decided to manage the space by placing
the children on their laps since it was getting dark.The time was 6pm. They were later joined by another man.
Her ordeal began when the driver got to her bus stop and instead of stopping for her to disembark, he refused.
“When we reached Funtua Junction, where I was supposed to alight, I informed the driver, but he ignored me. He drove past the junction, and we started shouting. That was when the passengers who had pretended to be fellow travellers brought out their guns. We didn’t even know they had guns, as they had concealed them. The car continued moving until we reached a point where there were soldiers,” she said.
If she thought the soldiers would rescue them, she was wrong as the soldiers did not notice they were being kidnapped in spite of their cry for help.
“We were shouting, but the soldiers didn’t notice anything. They didn’t realise what was going on until we passed them. Then the kidnappers ordered us to get out of the car, and we complied. I saw the Fulani men holding AK-47 rifles,” she added.
Baraka further said the kidnappers ordered them to alight from the car and led them into the forest, trekking several kilometres deep into the forest till the following morning.
On getting to their destination, the kidnappers put them in a thatched hut in the middle of the forest.
The trek into the forest claimed the lives of two of the six children of the woman she boarded the car with. Baraka said the children were killed by the kidnappers who were angry they were not moving fast.
“On the way, they killed two of the woman’s children. They said the children weren’t moving fast enough. So, they shot and killed them before we reached the hut. They also shot a fat woman in the leg because she couldn’t walk quickly. They wanted to abandon her, but one of them insisted they shouldn’t. It seemed they didn’t tolerate slow movement in the forest. After trekking for more than an hour, we heard gunshots from soldiers. The kidnappers told us the soldiers would not leave their positions and would only shoot into the air.”
Right in the hut, a bigger ordeal awaited her. She recalled that the kidnappers tied their hands and legs with big chains and padlocked them. The children were not spared as they suffered the same terrible conditions. They were also not offered food but only ration water in a fanta drink bottle to be shared among three kidnapped victims.
Around the hut where they were held were other huts where the kidnappers lived with their young wives, who were between 12 and 14 years old alongside the leader of the kidnappers whom she said was not more than 20 years old.
Apart from being on chains in the hut with 10 other victims, Baraka said the living conditions they were subjected to was terrible. They were made to urinate and defecate on their body while she also did her menstruation in chains and was not able to clean herself.
“Once I started menstruating, they stopped coming to our hut. The other woman said menstrual blood could neutralise their charms. I was supposed to menstruate for three days, but it lasted 10 days due to anxiety.”
She said the kidnappers contacted her family after four days and initially demanded N20m ransom before reducing it to N3m, two motorcycles, two smartphones with three cameras, and N50,000 worth of Airtel recharge cards
Her uncle whom the kidnappers contacted was able to raise the ransom and sent one of his boys to deliver the ransom but greater shock awaited her as the kidnappers, after releasing her, also detained the boy and refused to release him after collecting the money. They are asking the family to pay another ransom for the boy.
Baraka was released on the night of the same day the ransom was paid. Though the kidnappers offered her the option of staying till the following morning so as not to fall into the hands of another set of kidnappers, she insisted on leaving the same night.
She was driven on a motorcycle by one of the kidnappers to a location where she was released with no shoes. It was dark, the time was 10pm. She was shown the way out of the bush.
“That was how I started running until I got to a point far from where I was left. I saw a house there and I entered. I saw a man with his children reciting the Quran. As I entered the place, I fell and started crying. Then the man said he knew what had happened and that I should not say anything,” she said.
She contacted her uncle who took her to the hospital where a general test was carried out on her free of charge.
“There is a card they always give at the hospital that if they write bandit on top of it, any medicine or tests to be given and carried out will be free. They did the tests for me but the problem is that whenever I scratch my body, rashes will come out. Recently, something came out of my eye. So, I had to go to the hospital. My eye surgery is in a few days now.
I am thankful to God for my life, my family’s support, and the opportunity to seek my mum’s forgiveness, “she concluded.