I was abducted on my way back from school along that notorious Rijana
road in Kaduna state, almost four years ago. Our car was attacked, the driver
and passengers ran into the bush but the kidnappers chased us out to take us
captive. Our car was not the only one caught by the kidnappers, there were many
people travelling on that road who were caught in the gun fire by the
kidnappers. There were several commercial buses as well.
This same spot had seen many kidnappings take place for several years; even
the train bombing that took place after my kidnap was around that area. Many
times, the governor at that time made many promises to ensure the safety of
people but many, many people were still kidnapped there and the government did
nothing to get rescue or pay ransom. It was the families of the abducted people
that raised money for their freedom.
I am telling you this so you understand me well.
When I got kidnapped. We were matched into the forest for hours. We trekked
for hours in a single file. This was after the kidnappers had taken our phones,
ID Cards, ATM cards, and personal belongings. I mean everything we had in our
possessions. A few of us were beaten to pulp, especially the men who the
kidnappers suspected were in the military or even customs. They beat them like
mad!
I met Sule
Now, among our abductors was who I will call Sule for the sake of his
identity. Sule was young, maybe in his early 20s or late teens at that time. He
is not educated but he was good with pidgin. The thing about the kidnappers is
that they hate people who speak English. So if they catch you and all you
can speak is English, you will be beaten like mad.
I speak Fulfulde, even though I am Hausa. So I was able to communicate and
understood them easily but the majority of those of us captured didn’t speak
the language.
Sule, from the very beginning, was different from the rest. He spoke Hausa,
Fulfulde and pidgin. Though he carried a huge gun like the rest and tied a
scarf to cover most of his face. I knew from his arms and legs that he was a
young man when he first caught my attention.
He heard when their big boss was interrogating me, asking me who would pay
my ransom. He heard me say I was a house help and was the only child of a
widowed mother…even though this isn’t true but I was looking to see if they
would show me mercy.
I told him my bosses would not even give me 10kobo if I got into an accident
while running an errand for them. I didn’t let them know I spoke English, or
that I was a student or that I lived with my parents. When we were attacked,
the first thing I three away as I got into the bush was my ID Card and my
phone.
Having heard stories about these things, you sort of get prepared, though no
matter how prepared you are, you will still be surprised.
My abductor began to court me
Two days after we got to the camp that they kept us. Before they began to
call us to speak to our relatives and ask for ransom, Sule came and sat beside
me one night and spoke in pidgin.
I was at first afraid of him but he had removed his scarf and I could see he
was young. My first thought after that was, ‘abi he wants to rape me?’
But there was nothing in the way he spoke to me that made me think so. He said,
“I sabi, small, small pidgin.” He wanted to speak to me so his other gang
members wouldn’t hear what he was saying.
He said, “Why you wan know book as you bi woman?”
I replied, “I no know book, I bi housegirl…”
He said, “No lie, I see your card…”
“I beg, no tell dem, I beg…”
From that small conversation, over the next few weeks I was in that camp, I
got to know more about Sule. In fact, his colleagues began to call me his wife
because they noticed he always came to sit beside me at night.
Now. You have to understand that while I was in captivity, while my family
was trying to raise the ransom for me, I got to know a lot of things about
these kidnappers through Sule.
I got to know he was forced to join them after his village was completely
destroyed with their farmlands and he and the rest of his community that
survived ran into the bush. Hunger made them join the bandits. It wasn’t love
and before the bandits fully admitted them into their fold, they made them
swear to some blood oaths and the Quran.
He was also a victim
That was when Sule knew they were not real Muslims. Real Muslims will not
ask you to swear blood oaths or use the Quran to kill innocent people. But he
had joined them, had killed a few people in their raids and he didn’t know the
way out.
It was Sule who told me what to say to their leader whenever I was called to
speak to my family about the ransom. You see, they would beat some of us, then
give us a phone to tell our relatives to hurry with the ransom. Many people
whose families couldn’t raise the ransom were beaten with iron chains.
Especially one Yoruba man who’s family agreed to pay N120million.
So as I said, Sule helped me. He promised to help me escape if my mother
couldn’t come up with the ransom and Honda bike they asked her to come up with.
Alas, my family couldn’t raise the money. So the leader said he was going to
let his boys rape me!
Sule began to plead for me. He said to him that my mother was a widow who
didn’t have anyone to help her. He finally convinced the leader to lower the
ransom. He did but it wasn’t immediately. It took days of threats, days of
being taunted by the other gang members that they would enjoy raping me once
their leader gives the go-ahead and days of me crying and begging Sule to help
me.
I was in the abducted for 3 months
Three months which my family went from pillar to post to look for money.
Three months the police told my family that they were not involved in the
matter and that my family should go and settle with the kidnappers the way
other people were settling with them!
No government delegation was sent to negotiate for us…everyone that got
released was released because their families paid!
So I was at Sule’s mercy. Of course at that time, while I was in captivity,
I didn’t fully realise this. Sule advised me to tell my mother to get the
machine, even if she couldn’t get all the money. She did along with three
cartons of beer, cigarettes and some food stuff and he told her not to bring
them herself because she would be kidnapped.
Did we give them money, yes, we did, instead of the N1.5 million they
demanded, my family could only raise N800,000 instead.
Now, after all of these were given, I was set to be released. The day I was
set to go, they went on a raid and Sule escaped from there. At that time, I
didn’t know he had escaped. I thought maybe he died in the raid because
apparently, they met with some soldiers that day and some of them came back
with gun wounds.
I thought I had lost him
So they all assumed Sule was either captured or dead. That raid also made
them quickly release some of us who had made some payment even though the
payments weren’t complete. It was as if they were afraid soldiers would find
their hiding place and with so many captives, movement may be hard. I was
released along with a few people.
I got home after a lot of trouble but I got home.
After about a month. My mother got a call from someone who said he wanted to
speak to me.
You know at this time, I was still trying to get over the trauma of the
kidnap…I am not even sure I will ever get over it. But that day, my mother
refused to give me the phone because she insisted on knowing who it was that
wanted to speak to me. The person dropped the line but kept calling over the
next few weeks. Finally, he said he was the one who helped me with the
negotiation when I was kidnapped, so I told my mother to let me speak to him.
It was Sule.
I was so happy he made it out alive. I was truly happy he made it out!
I asked him where he was, he said he was “travelling to Yorubaland.” That’s
how he put it.
He said he was done with the bandits and he was suffering because he always
had bad dreams. He said he would find something to do.
I remain grateful to him
You know, I felt grateful for his friendship because I believe if he hadn’t
intervened the way he did for me, I would have been raped by the gang. Tell me
if I would have survived it because I would have fought them and they would
have killed me in the process.
Sule is somewhere out there. I hope he survives. I always look forward to
speaking to him in his bad pidgin and I hope he finds whatever it is he is
looking for. To me, he would never be a bandit, he would be someone who I hold
dear to my heart and pray he survives because he, like me too, was a victim of
bad government. That’s the way I see it. You see, even as I speak to you, this
is four years after my kidnap, not one single government person has come to me
to say, “How can we help you?” or anything such as that. We have been on our
own!
(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)
photo credit
