This report would have been written by a different person with a different caption which could be “21st Century Chronicle Reporter, others Abducted on Funtua-Gusau road;” but for God’s intervention which destined the vehicle I was travelling in penultimate Friday, to develop a mechanical problem few kilometres away from where the bandits were operating.
This is a diary of our reporter, Abdussamad Liman who was among the passengers that boarded a Kaduna Mass transit bus.
The journey which began from the Unguwar Sarki Terminal of the company was going on smoothly until we reached Kamfanin Mailafiya between Funtua and Yankara, a sleepy community, where the vehicle developed a fault.
After carrying out some checks, the driver of the vehicle announced to us that the fuel pump was not supplying fuel to the injector and as such, the vehicle could not be ignited until the problem was rectified.
While we waited for the fault to be rectified, a Volkswagen Golf car heading in the Funtua direction, parked and the driver came up to us to warn us to quickly leave the spot as it had become a dangerous spot for kidnapping.
According to the Volkswagen driver, only the previous day (Thursday), the road was blocked by the kidnappers five times and many motorists and their passengers were either robbed, killed or kidnapped.
The driver volunteered to help tow our vehicle to Yankara community which is safer and also said it would be easier for us to get a mechanic to repair it there.
While we were looking for a strong rope to use in towing the vehicle, two other Volkswagen Golf cars also stopped and the drivers while warning us to hurry and leave the spot, offered to convey some of the passengers to Yankara for safety.
We eventually got to Yankara and spent about 40 minutes there before the vehicle was repaired and we all prayed that the delay should be a blessing to us and indeed it turned out to be so as at that very moment, precisely around 11:30am, bandits were operating on the Yankara-Tsafe road.
The rapid response team of Operation Hadarin Daji were already there before our arrival at the point but they came a little too late as the bandits had already emptied two vehicles and marched the passengers to an unknown destination.
We saw one passenger lying dead in a pool of blood while others were critically injured and if not for the quick arrival of the soldiers, the number of the abductees would have been in hundreds because of the number of 18-seater buses spotted plying the road with members of the Darika sect who were on their way to Kaduna from Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states for the annual Maulud festival.
The soldiers fired some warning shots before allowing the stranded vehicles to pass.
They also conveyed some of the injured in their armour tank vehicle to the hospital for medical attention.
