Fear Of Security Search Team Made Kidnappers To Abandon Us – Kidnap Victim Reveals

According to Emmanuella, the village where the bandits struck is located some 130 kilometers from Jos and about 25 kilometers to Ankwanga, the next main town on the Jos-Abuja road.

After an assault by armed bandits on the vehicle they were traveling in from Jos to Abuja on July 23, 2023, near a village called Andaha, one of the kidnapped victims, Ms. Emmanuella Golit, revealed that the abductors decided to abandon her and the other victims due to their fear of joint patrol teams consisting of the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Airforce approaching their location.

According to Emmanuella, the village where the bandits struck is located some 130 kilometers from Jos and about 25 kilometers to Ankwanga, the next main town on the Jos-Abuja road.

Narrating her ordeal, she said that after attending the wedding ceremony of a family member in Jos, she was traveling from Jos to Abuja, in a private car with 4 other occupants including 2 co-travelers she was acquainted with while 2 others were military officers.

She said on approaching Andaha village, they heard gunshots ahead at a  location that was mainly surrounded by forests and sparsely inhabited with rural scattered farms.

She said they sighted kidnappers who blocked the road, and ahead of the vehicle she was traveling in were 2 other vehicles from which the passengers were fleeing from the kidnappers into adjoining bushes.

Sensing danger as the kidnappers were firing into the air, the driver of their car abruptly came to a stop and tried to reverse but in the process, the car went off the road and skidded into the forest.

They all ran out of the car with  3 of them running in the same direction while 2 others ran in another. As they ran, they heard screaming and gunshots behind them. The 3 of them that ran in the same direction were caught by the kidnappers while their other colleagues managed to escape.

“The gunmen that kidnapped us spoke in Hausa. The kidnappers held us and 5 other people at gunpoint as their other colleagues joined them. They were 8 in number. 4 of them had guns while others had long knives (Cutlasses). I was the only female amongst those kidnapped.

“After walking a great distance into the forest while it was raining, and pitch dark, they stopped at some point, they stopped when they felt they could not be easily traced, then proceeded to interrogate us and asked us to disclose our tribes, occupations, and our fathers’ occupations.

“I told them that I was a Primary School Assistant Teacher with a meager salary and that my biological father was also a retired teacher, whose pension was too small to take care of his needs. They further inquired if I had money to pay to free myself. I replied in the negative saying I could raise N500,000 only.

“They rejected the amount demanding that they would only accept the sum of N100 million from each of us and that if I did not pay up, they would take me to their boss who was in Kaduna state and he would marry me into his harem.

“I pleaded with them that I was already married and had a child but they told me I will be forcefully given in marriage to their boss unless I meet their demand.

While the captors were taking us to a village in Kaduna State in the night, they noticed that some soldiers were patrolling and searching for us. Intermittently, they would duck and ask us (captives) to keep quiet and lay low.

“In the process of walking for an extended period without shoes, I had big blisters underneath my feet. I sprained my right ankle, stumbled and fell. I was in severe pain and started to lag behind the rest of the group because I couldn’t walk fast anymore as it was also very dark and I couldn’t see well.

“After a while it seemed like they were confused and didn’t know where they were going and because of the security patrol they were trying to avoid. They started to call their counterparts when the group was once more divided but I couldn’t understand what they were saying because they spoke in Hausa.

As I could not walk fast, they threatened to kill me if I did not behave myself. They told me to stop pleading otherwise, they would waste me and my family will not be able to find my remains.

“While they were trying to rough handle me, their leader ordered one of them to ask me to stand up and we started walking again for a long time. Then they stopped in their tracks after a lengthy call with their counterparts.

“They kept yelling at me to walk faster and suddenly, one of them came from behind and hit me with a rifle on my ankle. At that point, I could not walk any longer and started to cry and was scooting on my butt. When I noticed they were way ahead, I changed direction, struggled to walk back towards the main road with the help of intermittent lights of vehicles and vehicular sounds until I passed out by the roadside.

“I woke up in the Nigerian Air Force Base Hospital in Jos where I was recovered to by good Samaritans traveling to the city who said they saw me laying by the side of the road at about 4 am on the 24th July 2023. That was all I could recount.

“Luckily, as at the evening of Monday, 24th July 2023, each of the captors managed to escape from the kidnappers as a combined team of NAF and NA troops intensified patrol into the bushes and adjoining forests.”

Frank Cis | July 27, 2023.

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