With banditry, insurgency, kidnapping and abduction unabating in the country, a student of Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), and two corps members recount their ordeals in the hands of kidnappers, reports PROMISE EZE(UDUS)

Then Immaculate Kondo, a 200-Level undergraduate of Usman Danfodiyo University , Sokoto (UDUS), left home for school on Tuesday,  October 19, 2021, she didn’t have premonition of the cruel fate that befell her.

She left Benue with eight other passengers that morning in an 18–seater bus. By 6 pm somewhere around Tsafe, Zamfara State, some armed men, flagged down their vehicle and ordered every passenger to get down. They were all herded into the bush, except the driver and one other passenger who escaped.

“I remember there were seven of them and they were dressed like soldiers. They were heavily armed. They stopped our car and ordered all of us to get down. Initially, I assumed they were just robbers, so I intentionally did not come down with my phone. But to my shock, they herded us into the bush on bikes.

“One of the passengers ran away. He was the last person to get down from the bus. As soon as he got down, he took to his heels. But the driver stood by the car. And he wasn’t taken along with us. I suspect that he worked as an informant to the kidnappers,” Kondo told CAMPUS LIFE.

Armed gangs, popularly referred to by government officials and local media as “bandits”, have been terrorising northwest Nigeria for some years. Statistics show   that in the first nine months of this year,  some 2,200 people were kidnapped for ransom, more than double the roughly 1,000 abducted in 2020.

N1.5m per victim

That night marked the beginning of  one week  of horrific experience for Kondo. The kidnappers drove the victims into bush for about two hours until they stopped at the bank of a shallow river which everyone must cross by foot.

“When we got to the river,  I thought they would kill us, but they commanded us to cross it. We crossed to the other side by foot and were taken to another location. It took us three hours to get there,” she said.

On the first night of captivity, one young man managed to escape. When Kondo  and others tried to follow suit, the men who watched over them woke up. The next day, the legs of the kidnapped victims were chained so that they would not escape.

Kondo and others were forced to eat stale bread and drink muddy water. The terrorists would let off long bursts of gunfire that rattled the sky so as to invoke fear in the minds of victims.

The following day,  negotiations for their release began. Despite the shut down of telecommunications in Zamfara, the bandits were still able to call the families of the victims.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had directed telecommunications operators to shut down services in Zamfara, Katsina and Sokoto states as part of fresh measures to contain banditry in the states. While the shutdown was total in Zamfara, phone services were shut down in at least 13 local government areas of Katsina and 14 local councils in Sokoto. However, the shutdown has  proved  to be ineffective because  banditry still rages on.

“In the morning, they took us to a place where the network was good so that they could negotiate with our families. It took about two hours to get there on bike. It was a very long journey.

“The bandits told us that the six of us must bring N20m or else we would all be killed. However, we pleaded with them. We told them that we couldn’t  afford that kind of money. Eventually, the ransom was pegged at N12m. Each of us was to pay N2m,”  she said.

They threatened  that if the ransom was not paid on time they would be killed.

The bandits, to avoid being tracked, used the phone of a kidnap victim to put calls through to the families of all the victims. The next day, which was Thursday, the victims were forced to call their families for the money again. The victims were told to tell their families that the money must be ready by Sunday. However, the families of the victims insisted that N12m was too much. The ransom was eventually pegged at N9m—N1.5m per victim. The ransom was paid cash on Tuesday the following week by a driver who was sent to the bush by the families of the victim and by 6pm everyone was released. Exactly one week they were kidnapped. But before they were released something dramatic happened: the bandits unashamedly took pictures with them.

Corps members involved

Jennifer Iorliam and Joseph Aondona were among those whisked into the bush alongside Kondo  by the bandits. Both of them, members of the National Youth Service Corps, were on their way to the NYSC Orientation Camp in Kebbi State. They were supposed to board another bus from Sokoto to their destination in Kebbi State but their journey came to a stop when their vehicle was intercepted around the Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

Just like Kondo, Iorliam assumed that the armed men were robbers.

“I was scared because I thought they were going to rob us and free us but I became scared when they started taking us inside a bush. However, I believed that I was going to make it out alive because I knew God won’t abandon me,” she said.

‘They touched our sensitive parts’

Banditry and sexual assault are intertwined. Bandits do not only kidnap, maim or kill their victims. They also try to rape them.

Kondo and Jennifer Iorliam confirmed that though none of the victims were raped, they were manhandled.

“On our way to the river, I was placed on a motor cycle between two armed men. One was riding, while the other was behind me. The one behind me fondled my breasts and touched my buttocks as we moved.

“Even when we were chained inside the bush, some of kidnappers tried to rape us but their boss ordered them not to do so,” she said.

“Yes, some were touching our breasts,” answered  Iorliam when this correspondent requested to know if they were at any point abused.

Villagers provide cover for bandits

Kondo alleged that the bandits who kidnapped her are  known to the members of villages they operate in. She said that sometimes some villagers would pass by and see them chained but would be indifferent. CAMPUS LIFE quizzed her to recall the name of the village she was held captive but she couldn’t remember it.

“I cannot remember the name of the village, but I can swear that the villagers are aware of what is going on and they seem not to care. Probably, they’re benefiting from the crime. Sometimes some villagers would pass and see us chained, they would see the guns in the hands of the kidnappers, but they would pretend they saw nothing unusual.

“The bandits told us that even if we  manage to escape, we may not make it out of the village because there are so many criminal groups around. We may be so unlucky to fall into the hands of another kidnap king pin,” she said.

Traumatised victim

Kondo is still traumatised. The scars of the horror and shock are still etched in her memory. She has resolved never to go back home until she graduates from school.

“Before the bandits let us go, they mocked us. They asked if we would dare to pass through Zamfara again in our lives. They even had the audacity to take photos with us without hiding their faces. I cannot pass through Zamfara again for now. I’ll wait till I graduate from school before I think of going back home,” she said.

‘Corps members, students should be security-conscious’

Abubakar Kabiru, a lecturer and security expert with the Faculty of Education at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, in an interview with CAMPUS LIFE, advised students and corps members to be security conscious when on transit.

“The problem of banditry has gotten out of hand. Areas like Zamfara, Kebbi and Sokoto are very dangerous now. It is very unwise for anyone to travel in the evening in such areas. Students and corps members must be very be careful,” he said.

He believes that though the government has been trying to end banditry, it needs to do better.

“Government is claiming to be doing enough, but it needs to do more,” he added.

Fed Govt committed to tackling insecurity

Last month President Buhari in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu said: “The bandits are currently under desperate pressures because of the intense and sustained air and ground operations against them in their hideouts by our security forces.

“The cowardly attacks on innocent people by the bandits show a rearguard action of criminals under pressure. But they will have no place to hide and our gallant security forces will not relent in the current offensive to defeat these callous enemies of Nigeria