The University lecturer’s family abduction in Zaria, 40 days in captivity, and the failed state security

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By Abdelghafar Amoka

It was on Friday, 9th July 2021 at about 9 pm and my phone was ringing. I picked the phone and was wondering why he was calling again as we had talked about an hour before then. I picked the call and all I heard was; “La hawla wala Quwwata illa bil lahi Al ‘Aliyyil Adheem (There is no might or power EXCEPT with ALLAH), please pray for me, my family is under attack by the bandits”. I was confused and didn’t know who to call. It then occurred to me to call some friends that could have contact with the security agents. I got one of them and he put a call across to them and they responded that they are aware and on their way to the office.

While our security agents were mobilizing, the “Terrorists” they choose to call Bandits were in operation in the house. They took their time to break the wall of the house and gained entrance. While they were breaking the wall of the house, which lasted for over 40 minutes, the woman was communicating with him (the husband) who was at the Federal University, Dusinma at the time of the attack. The kidnappers, having heard her communicating, told her from outside that she can call anyone she wants to call and that no one will come to save her.

They spent over 40 minutes executing the operation while the security agents were still mobilizing at the station that is just about a 5-minutes drive away from the house under attack. By the time they are done mobilizing, the Terrorists are done and gone with his wife and 3 children. The phone got switched off and he lost communication with his family.

Even though the station was not far away, they could not get there within the required time to save the family. Was that just a coincidence with the words from the kidnappers, or they bought their time, and the delay to get there was deliberate? Or was it a tactical maneuver to avoid a foreseen casualty since they ain’t got the capacity to engage those terrorists? Still finding it difficult to figure out which is the case.

I could not sleep well that night, but in my head, I still felt it was a dream and that we will see them the next morning. He returned from Dusinma to Zaria the next morning and we went to the house and met it empty. The entire family was truly gone. And that marked the beginning of a long wait and psychological trauma. While the family was undergoing physical and mental torture, he was placed under psychological torture.

He met the head of one of the security agents on his return and there was nothing useful to pick from the discussion. The incident was on the news and it went viral. It trended for few days and attracted tonnes of online sympathy. And as usual, it lasted for few days and another event came up and we followed it and move on and forget that the woman and her 3 kids were still in captivity. That is us in the 21st century. We live by the moment.

The university lecturer was left on his own to carry his cross and figure out how to get his family rescued. The security agents that were supposed to be giving him updates on their efforts to rescue his family were rather calling him for an update on his family in captivity. Unbelievable! That was an indication that even though they could not prevent the kidnapping operation, there was also no intelligent operation to rescue them. They were later even asking him the amount the kidnappers are demanding as ransom. Then we realize that we are in deep shit.

The Kidnappers called him and negotiation began. The number of days of his family in captivity gradually increased from 2 days to 5 days to 10 days, and keep growing. As he cried to them that he has got no money and mentioned the amount he can afford, they began to torture the family. You can see the wound and scars all over her body.

Meanwhile, the state governor said ransom should not be paid to bandits. I agree with him. But he should have given one of his kids to them to keep without paying ransom to experiment. That may have made him understand what it feels like to have a victim with them. But he didn’t. Instead, he withdrew his kids from public schools to secure them, closed all public schools for kids to stay at home for fear of kidnapping, but no provision for their security while at home. These kids and their mother were kidnapped from their bedroom just after the school closure.

They were tortured. She watched her children tortured and she can’t do anything and the poor little kids watched their mother being tortured and they can’t do anything. The woman and the first son that is just 10 years had already given up thinking they were going to die there. They eventually agreed on a ransom and they were released on the 40th day after the abduction.

You don’t want to see their state of being when they were released. The woman was unconscious, possibly due to the days of physical and mental torture. The kids were traumatized and broken. They are so lean and could not look straight at you. I cried uncontrollably when I met them.

I watched the woman on her hospital bed each day and I tried to control my tears. The state who has the responsibility to protect us has failed them. We could also not protect them because we are not licensed to have arms. The country has failed us. This is just one of the several kidnap cases. Will this family ever forgive the country and the leaders?

There has being a sharp increase in kidnapping cases in Kaduna state, and Zaria in particular, over the last year, especially the settlements around the university that have been targeted. A house of a former VC was attacked last year in Zango and they went away with his daughter. The house of ABU retiree (an Associate Professor) also in Zango was attacked last year and they went away with her 2 grandchildren. Two houses were attacked on campus at two different times last year and the occupants were kidnapped.

Then, these Mil-Goma and Shika kidnapping cases last month that involved this staff of ABUTH and her 3 children. And on Thursday, another well-coordinated attack in Zango again and 4 people including a staff of ABUTH were kidnapped. Over the last year, there were also kidnapping cases at the staff quarters of Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic in Zaria and Zaria City.

There is this wrong perception that university workers, especially the Lecturers are paid very well. The same lecturers that have not got a pay rise for 12 years. The poor university staff struggling to survive became their targets. You would expect that the Chief Security Officer of the State and the C-in-C of the Armed Forces should have put together a special force in Zaria with the capability of repelling these terrorists due to these frequent kidnapping occurrences, but nothing of such that we are aware of up till last Thursday when the recent attack took place. The government seems to have given up and left us for Bandits. We seem to be on our own. Failed state.

We seem to be living in bondage as everyone is afraid right inside their home once it’s getting dark. Any sound will make you jump up and praying the bandits have not visited your community. For how long can we sustain this living in fear? The Governor of Katsina State expressed his frustration a few days ago when he urged Katsina residents to get arms to defend themselves against the bandits. Gen T.Y. Danjuma expressed the same frustration when part of his state was attacked a few years back.

Gen. T.Y. Danjuma (rtd) saw it coming when we could not see it, but his message was handled as opposition to Saint Buhari. The retired General was placed under the hammer for expressing such an opinion. But long after then, the criminal elements have continued to dare our dear country and making our military, police, and other security agencies look inept, incompetent, and ill-equipped. They have dared the country to the level of attacking the prestigious NDA in Kaduna, killed, and kidnapped an Officer for 200 million naira ransom. This is not the Nigerian Army that we use to have. So, who is safe, where is safe, and what is the way forward?

The Katsina Governor has expressed the exact frustration of a lot of people. But the minister of police affairs who is surrounded by armed security personnel but will still be afraid of travel by road from Abuja to Kaduna or Zaria to Kebbi disagreed with the Governor’s call and insisted that the police can protect us but need our help.

How can you help police that run for cover for hearing the gunshots of the bandits? The police without intelligent apparatus for rescue operations but asking the family of the victims for updates? Maybe we should start taking FG to court to claim damages and compensation for failure to protect us from every abduction and torture by the Bandits. I hope the law allows that.

They kidnap without resistance and come back again and again to do the same. Since internal security seems to be deteriorating on daily basis, maybe the retired General and the Governor are right and it is truly time to stop crying for security help from the failed government armed forces and start to protect ourselves. Every community may have to start to make provisions for their security except if they want to continue to pay the ransom.

The current banditry seems to be a well-funded and organized business network that starts from the informants to the execution. The bandits who are possibly being sponsored by individuals among us are heavily armed.

My guess is that if every community is armed enough to provide resistance to the bandits, their attacking tendencies will be reduced. They are in business and out for the money. I don’t think they want or are ready to die too.

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