We saw hell in kidnappers’ den, Nuhu Bamalli Poly abducted student narrates ordeal

The nine lecturers and students of Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnics Zaria, Kaduna state, who were last Thursday released from captivity after spending over a month in kidnappers’ den, were chained, flogged and slept under the rain. 
One of the kidnapped students, while narrating their ordeals in the hands of the bandits, said, they slept in the open under rain and cold for 10 days in the bandits’ den. 


He told Blueprint that he almost gave up hope of surviving due to the inhuman treatment they were subjected to by the bandits, noting that they were welcomed to the kidnappers’ camp with beating with electric cables and sticks.
According to the student, who doesn’t want his identity revealed for fear of backlash, said though the bandits often allowed them freedom of movement within the camp in the afternoon, they would put shackles on their legs throughout the night to prevent them from escaping.


“When we realised that, there was no way we could escape from the bandits’ camp, we handed over everything to God. In fact, trying to run away was like endangering your life, because there were other bandits camps in the forest who will just capture you as a fresh victim.
“For example, we are the ones that used to go and fetch water from a stream which is like a kilometer away from our camp, but they would escort us to and fro with guns. So, when we understood how the terrain is, we realised that, going to the stream to fetch water without our abductors was even risky for us, because that would have exposed us to being kidnapped by members of other kidnap gangs.


“Each time we went to the stream to fetch water, members of other gangs would just shoot into the air when they noticed our movement and our own escorts would respond by firing into the air too. So, that signified that if there were no such response, the other people would simply understood that we have escaped from somewhere and capture us,” he explained 
According to the victim, life in the kidnappers’ den was like hell, as they were threatened with death during ransom negotiations with their families, “the bandits have no sympathy or fear of God. We were kidnapped from the school around 10:30pm on the 10th June and they started marching us into the bush around 11:00pm, some of us without shoes and clothes. 


“We arrived a deserted community around 7:00am the following day, after walking in the forest throughout the night. They called their colleagues from their camp to bring bikes, then they carried us on the bikes and traveled for like another two hours before arriving the camp. They know the terrain very well, so they moved on dangerous speed through the bush, some fell along the road and the victims got injured. At that point, I was so eager to even get to their camp.
“When we got there, they dropped us and one of them said they should arrange a welcome tea for us. I was happy because at that time, we were already very hungry, not knowing that they were talking about a welcome beating. They beat us with (electricity) cables and sticks that day. But, after that day, they didn’t beat us again except when we do anything that angered them.
“For the first 10 days, we were sleeping in the open place. We were beaten by rain and exposed to cold, mosquitoes and other dangerous insects. So, on the 11th day, we (the captives) decided to build a hut for ourselves. We got all the material from the forest there and built a hut, though assisted by those assigned to be guarding us,” the survivor said.
He also disclosed that, their captors were the same group who abducted people from the Leprosy Centre in Zaria, saying that, the victims met them in the camp.


According to him, “When we got to the camp, we met only one lady with our captors. Then with the nine of us from Nuhu Bamalli, we became 10. But as at the time we were released, we left I think 11 or 12  people in the jungle.
“Mother of the lady we met paid ransom of N2.5million too, but instead of the bandits to release her, they held the person who brought the ransom too. They even collected the bike of the Okada rider that brought him. So, we beceme 11 in the camp before they now brought the 10 people who were kidnapped from the Leprosy Centre. So, we left all of them there.”


Speaking about the feeding, the survivor said, the gang leader brought a bag of foreign rice, beans and oil on their first day in camp, which they later finished, but he brought another one immediately. “We used to cook by ourselves, the ladies among us were the ones cooking, ours was to fetch water and firewood for the ladies. Those guarding us used to cook too when they are hungry,” he said.
The victim called on government to take action on the banditry issue, noting that the forest where they were taken to was a community full of criminals, from the kidnappers and their guards to those supplying them foods, provisions, drugs and ammunition.