The 19 people abducted by bandits in the old Kutunku community in Wushishi local government area of Niger state have recounted their harrowing experiences in the hands of their captors.
Malam Alfa Zagi, who was abducted along with his two daughters whose marriage was supposed to have been consummated on March 18 and 16 others, said their encounter with the bandits was an experience no human being should be made to go through.
Alfa and the others, including a nursing mother and her nine months old baby, were released on Wednesday, after spending two weeks in the forest with gunmen.
“We were forced to trek for over 12 hours with young children aged between eight and nine years, to a village called Pangu gari in Rafi local government area of the state, where we made a stopover to rest without food.
“The bandits then called their gang members on the phone to come and pick us with motorcycles and took us to their camp,” he recounted.
He said in their two weeks stay at the kidnapper’s camp, they were assaulted and tortured.
“The young girls were forced to fetch water from a stream and made to go in search of fire wood with armed escorts.
“The food was terrible and we eat once in a day,” he explained, adding that the nursing mother and her child were already ill before their release was secured.
He said the woman and her child were taken to a primary healthcare centre, by a health worker from the community, Malam Bello Gomna, where the rest of them were also given routine check up.
Malam Gomna, who is also the spokesman of the community alleged that from the day of the abduction to the day the victims were set free, no government official at the state and local government level identified with the community.
“We were left to our own devices and it’s also sad that even when we reported the security situation to the appropriate authority, security agents were not drafted to the community up till today,” he also alleged.
