Traumatized Hostages Recall 95 Days in Rats’ Nest of Kidnapper Camps in Rijana Forest
By Luka Binniyat and Mike Odeh James
The killing of another kidnapping kingpin on Sept. 21 in a forest 17 miles south of Kaduna City has focused the nation’s attention on set of forests in southern Kaduna which have been staging areas for kidnap-for ransom for years. The slain gangster, Kachalla Tukur Sharme, is among several warlords who have found safety and calm in the forests of Rijana and Kaso, which reach across Kachia, Chikun, and Kajuru Counties, according to Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna’s Commissioner for Internal Security.
“Sharme and his gang of bandits were largely responsible for attacks, killings and kidnappings in Millennium City, Maraban Rido, Kujama, Kajuru, Maro, villages in Kateri general area and other locations in adjoining LGAs (counties) of Kagarko, Kachia and Birnin Gwari,” said Aruwan. “This was in addition to his criminal acts in neighbouring states of Katsina and Niger, which were also left reeling from the waves of his terrorism.”
Sharme’s gang also was responsible for the abduction of 121 students from Bethel Baptist High School in July 2021.
Rijana, Chikun county, a small, inconspicuous village of some 150 homes about 22 miles Southwest of Kaduna by the Kaduna-Abuja expressway, is shielding a cluster of terrorists’ groups behind its hills and valleys that have long been ungovernable spaces, according to security operatives speaking to TruthNigeria on background. The Nigeria Air Force bombed Rijana Forest in 2021.
The human cost of the torture of kidnapped citizens can only be told by the victims themselves. TruthNigeria interviews with the hostages who survived kidnapping in the towns mentioned by Commissioner Aruwan are heartbreaking.
Kidnapping from Kujama in June 2024
Around midnight, June, 2nd, 2024, armed Fulani terrorists said to number about 50, attacked Ungwa Mission Pamfuran, Kujama, Chikun Ward of Kaduna state, Northwest Nigeria. Five persons were abducted from the small community of approximately 1,500 people, 10 miles West of Kaduna city.
In this exclusive chat with some of the survivors who are still recuperating in a hospital, they reveal to TruthNigeria a chilling account of horrific terror they had to endure for two months, five days, under their captors bereft of humanity.
“I was beaten for 65 days and fed food that dogs would reject throughout,” said 16-year-old Shekwolo Garba, a dark, lanky lad in senior high school, his arms and neck filled with scores of healing scars from sustained flogging.
Flogged and made to carry heavy loads
“Commencing on the night of our abduction, June 2, 2024, I, alongside my mother, sister and sister in-law and a neighbor were marched to the outskirts of our village with dogs barking madly that night,” said Shekwolo, his eyes glazed in tears.
“The bandits had also looted food items and some clothes which they heaped on my head and with guns pointing at us, we started walking eastwards into the unknown in that dark night,” he said weakly.
“A young Fulani bandit not much older than me, as I later came to realize, was made to take charge of me.
“The young terrorist had a horsewhip which he used in flogging me, lacerating my body. I was tired with a heavy load on my head and now the pains from the steady flow of flogging,” Shekwolo said.
“With a heavy load on my head we kept walking through lowlands and into the mountainous forest for hours barefoot.
“I was subjected to relentless physical abuse,” Shekwolo told Truth Nigeria.
“We kept trekking for hours under such brutality. It was considered a serious offense to wail out loud. The cruelty would only get worse,” said the 16-year-old Shekwolo who claimed to have once represented his school in long distance races.
“For my mother and sister, I could have dropped the load and risk escaping, not worrying if I would be shot dead. But, if I did, it’s the rest of the hostages that will bear the punishment of such a venture,” he said.
“The overall effect of the weighty load and the unrelenting beatings ultimately proved too much for me, and I collapsed just when it appeared that it was early morning,” he said, trying to sit up on his sick bed with much effort until he sat up facing our reporters and kept his narration.
Notwithstanding his precarious state, the young terrorist, instead of helping Shekwolo to his feet, decided to administer more whips on his equally young captive.
“We set forth again and walked for about two more hours with the sun visible up in the sky. So, they took us to a bank of a stream that was bounded by a thick canopy of trees,” he said.
“It was there that we were bound by our feet and hands as we awaited darkness to fall before proceeding,” he said.
He said that it took them another 24 hours of gruesome trekking and flogging before they arrived at the camp of the terrorists.
Terrorists’ Torture Camp
He described the camp as consisting of several huts made of straw under some fairly tall trees facing what looked like a river about half a mile away.
“Upon arrival, we had swollen feet, weak and scared to death, as if it’s a terrible dream that I was yet to wake up from,” said Haba Garba, 60, mother of Shekwolo who affirmed the story of her son on her hospital bed not far from his bed.
“They shackled on our hands and legs, then callously abandoned outside in the thick woods as two new armed guards came to take over while the other Fulani entered some huts to rest,” she said.
“For two days, we didn’t eat or drink. Our abductors kept insulting us and beating us with horsewhips, urging us to walk faster until we arrived at the bush they were living in,” she said.
“Throughout our entire captivity, we were left exposed to the elements, forced to brave the torrential rains chained like wild animals. Mosquitos and other insects fed fat from our bodies.
“We were chained, bound together under a tree, and forced to urinate where we sat,” she said.
“If we wanted to visit the loo, a young terrorist would flog us ten times before leading us into the bush.”
“Sometimes, we went two days without eating, while our captors feasted and laughed while insulting us as “infidel Christian captives.”
“The water they gave us was filthy, contaminated, and made us sick,” she said, but they had to drink or die of dehydration,” she said.
She told Truth Nigeria, that there were other camps there as captives were always seen brought to other camps almost every day.
Luka Binniyat and Mike Odeh James are veteran conflict reporters for TruthNigeria.
