by Alhassan Haruna Danbatta,
Alhaji Usman is a man with two wives and twelve children, a responsible family man who was abducted by kidnappers housed in Toro forest of Ningi local government of Bauchi state.
On that faithful day of Wednesday at around 12:30am, Alh Usman was past asleep in his house when the aggressive knocks on his door woked him up, with the believe that the door knocks could be from either his next door neighbour or an important call that may need his urgent response, with that in his mind he rushed to the door and mistakenly without any enquiry he opened the door and that has since been his dilemma until his escape some two days ago.
Immediately he opened the door, he was confronted by some unknown faces carrying assorted guns, as he narrated his ordeal. The kidnappers demanded that he gives them money which he told them that he doesn’t have any money to give. The kidnappers with barrage of insults told him he is lying about it and they assured him that if he refused giving the money they have no choice but to kill him.
When asked how many of the assailants visited him, he said he counted six of them each with a brand of weapons that are identified as guns. Right there they commanded him to lie flat on the ground and two out of the kidnappers were instructed by their leader to enter the house and search it thoroughly for money or any other valuables. The kidnappers took all their mobile phones and proceed to break open his shop attached to his house where expensive materials were kept and pack brocades, swiss yards and money he came back with from the market.
After searching the house and the shop the kidnappers took Alhaji Usman along with them into the dungeon of the vast Toro forest of Ningi local government of Bauchi state. Alhaji Usman narrated that after he was taken into the vast Toro forest and upto the dungeon of the kidnappers, he met three other kidnapped victims two are married women abducted from their various homes and one of them is already pregnant but the third was a helpless young girl abducted and taken into the kidnappers deen.
When asked whether the kidnappers did anything unusual to them, Alhaji Usman said immediately they took him there, they took him to an isolated part of their deen and engaged him in homosexual activities, one after the other they raped him and for the whole days he stayed in captivity the kidnappers took round, one after the other and abused him continuously day in day out.
Alhaji Usman continued that on each day of his stay in the kidnappers deen the women were being abused first before they demand for his attention to satisfy their homosexual urge, he said the pregnant woman was sexually abused more because she first declined to cooperate with their demand, the other woman at first refused to cooperate so the kidnappers used the bud of their gun and knocked her down, when she woked up she obliged to cooperate and one after the other they all had their filled day upto the next morning.
The kidnappers first demanded for 10 million as ransom before they can release Alhaji Usman, but Alhaji Usman told them that he didn’t have even one million naira that he can give them, so the kidnappers told him point blank that without ten million the only option for him is loose his life.
As God will have it, the kidnappers all fall asleep in one of night and Alhaji Usman tried to use that opportunity after gauging the level of their sleep, he stood up like he wanted to ease himself and fully observed that they are deep asleep, he move a little further from their position expecting they will shout on him but none amongst them raise a word, then Alhaji Usman moved a little further and sprang on his feet running through the night with a closed eyes and with no knowledge where he is heading to he ran and ran and ran tirelessly for a whole day without making a stop anywhere.
Falling down severally while running for his dare life, Alhaji Usman could only discovered that his legs and feet were all wounded savarely and savagely. The next morning, he bust out through Jengi and followed through Juga, all are villages some fifty kilometres from the Toro forest which housed the kidnappers deen.
He first called on the villagers of juga to come and help him out because he couldn’t run anymore due to the wounds he sustained while running for his dare life. He had to sleep there because the villagers were afraid to come forward and offer any help to him, this is a precautions on the part of the villagers not to fall victim to the various traps of the kidnappers. In the morning the villagers came forward and brought him out to the open and demanded to know who he is. Alhaji Usman explained to them all what he passed through, he was further asked by villagers of his original village he was from which he explained to them that he is from Katsinawan Taula, an adjacent village from his position.
The villagers explained to him that, they cannot release him free until the routine practice of certifying his story are conducted by security operatives and he accepted their demand especially as he knows fully well of his innocence. As he sat there a man who knows him showed up and explained to the villagers, still Alhaji Usman was never allowed to go and treat his wounds and damaged legs.
After the villagers were convinced by the third party’s explanations, they took Alhaji Usman to his house in Juga of Ningi local government of Bauchi state.
Alhaji Usman is now a free man but The question that remained unanswered is, who will now free the three women in captivity with one of them heavily pregnant and sexually abused upto this day as they remained in captivity.
Comrade Alhassan Haruna Danbatta.
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