By Luka Binniyat and Mike Odeh James
(Kaduna City) – Sunday, the 23rd of February was a chilly, dark night, and the residents of Boto village, Zangon Kataf County in Southern Kaduna, central Nigeria, slept peacefully.
Boto, a community of about 150 compound houses, belongs to the Bakulu ethnic group and had gathered fame as successful farmers for their fertile fields of different grains and root crops.
Then, the Fulani ethnic militia struck that night.
“All of a sudden, I heard the rat-tat-tat sounds of gunfire coming from every direction in the village,” said Monica Adamu, 32, and mother of three children.
“Soon, the panicky cries of ‘Fulani! Fulani, Fulani!… run, run!’ could be heard as our people ran in different directions into the darkness,” she told TruthNigeria in an exclusive chat Thursday (May 1, 2025), shortly before being admitted to St. Louis General Hospital, Zonkwa, about 90 miles south of Kaduna.
“I was captured after they beamed a shiny light on my face while I was running and told me not to move,” she said.
“After 30 minutes of operation, three other boys were caught by the terrorists, making the number of abductees four,” she added.
No one was killed or property burned, ThruthNigeria learned.
Arduous Trek to terrorist Camp
“We were taken on foot by ten armed men who I identified as Fulani men,” she said, hardly able to stand.
“We trekked for two days barefoot over thorns, sharp stones, and through bushes that pricked and itched the body.
No one gave us anything to eat or drink,” said Mapsa Manzani, 16, one of the abductees.
After two days, they arrived at a camp beneath a bushy hill somewhere in Kachia County, close to Rijana town.
“We know that we were not in the Rijana forest camps of the bandits because the terrorists always went there and returned to our camp with supplies,” he said.
Camps of the Terrorists
He confirmed what TruthNigeria has been publishing about the presence of different camps separated by about a quarter of a mile, with each camp having between 80 and 120 hostages.
“The Fulani there are in their hundreds,” he said.
“We were chained to trees and always mercilessly flogged with horsewhips and fed very little for days,” he said.
“In our camp, we were about 85,” he said, his body covered in rashes and stinking from lack of a bath for over seven weeks.
Another abductee from Boto, Salisu Thomas, 22, corroborated the account of the other three, adding that they were always tied to a tree and blindfolded.
Gaunt and sickly looking, Thomas had sores and rashes and, despite his youthful appearance, was exhausted and visibly traumatized.
Ransom Negotiation and Payment
Nuhu Barde 30, a youth leader from Boto, was the person the terrorists were negotiating with.
“After a week of their abduction, the Fulani made contact with us,” he said.
“They were demanding N30 million ($20,000) and three new Android phones,” said Barde to our reporters.
After further negotiations, they settled for N20 million ($14,000) and three Android phones.
Within a week, the village raised only N10 million ($7,000) and the three phones.
“I was directed to a spot below Kachia town, through a lonely path, and trekked for about three hours before my phone rang and I was told to stop under a tree and wait for further instructions,” he said.
It was apparent that his movements were being monitored from somewhere.
After about 15 minutes, a Fulani man with a gun slung on his back arrived right where he was standing with the ransom, said Barde.
“He just took the money and the phones and zoomed off, and I turned and started walking back,” he said.
Demand for More Ransom
The terrorists called later in the evening and said that if the balance was not raised within days, the four Boto hostages would be killed, Barde added.
In the end, another N1.2 million ($800) was raised on April 12, 2025.
“We told them that was all we could afford, and they were very angry and vowed to kill them, and that we would never hear from them again,” he said.
“The day that Baba Tshoho (the terrorist leader in charge of their camp) received the last money, we were beaten almost to death,” said Thomas.
“It seemed the terrorists were under pressure to leave, based on their conversations,” according to Thomas. “They began releasing those whose ransom had been paid fully or nearly fully, and after a week, there were only 35 left in the camp,” Thomas said.
“They kept torturing them, but strangely, they killed no one in their camp, despite numerous killings in neighboring camps, as gathered from the conversations of the terrorists,” Thomas added.
Escaping Under Rainstorm
The rainy season in central Nigeria sets in from mid-April.
“Four days ago, around 9 p.m., there was a rainstorm,” said Thomas.
“The rain was heavy and accompanied by strong winds as it beat us under trees we were chained to,” he said.
“I shifted my blindfold and discovered that all the Fulani guards were not in their usual positions, as the occasional lightning flash revealed,” he said.
As the rain continued to drench the camp, Thomas discovered he could easily slide out of his foot chain.
He then crawled to where his three village mates were and freed them, along with a few others.
“We crawled on our bellies for about 30 minutes, not minding the mud and the thorny grasses,” he added.
“We then broke into groups based on where we came from,” Thomas said.
Then they made a break and started running in a direction they suspected led to Kachia.
“When the rain stopped, we saw plenty of flashlights from afar coming towards us, and we kept running.
After about an hour, we heard gunshots as the flashes seemed to get closer,” Monica said.
“We changed our direction and kept running. After some time, we saw the lights heading in a different direction,” she said.
“We ran into a thick bush, prayed, and recited Psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd. . .) That made us stronger, and we kept moving,” she said.
More Fulani Everywhere
They walked all through the night.
“When the first sign of morning showed, we saw what looked like a canopy of trees banking a stream and decided to go there and observe the surroundings,” said Mazani.
To their horror, there was a footpath not far from where they were hiding, where armed Fulani were driving hostages.
They ran down the stream and hid deeper.
Three hours after sunrise, they saw no movement.
“We plotted a direction and decided to follow it as straight as possible, one at a time,” he said.
In no time, they were on top of a hill where they saw more Fulani huts and cows grazing on open fields.
“We decided to spend the day on the hill. Fortunately, there were plenty of these,” Thomas said, shoving his hand into his jacket pocket and revealing some kind of wild yellow fruits.
Prayers Made Them Strong
When it was night, they prayed, thanking God for their miracle of escape, and again recited Psalm 23 before moving.
They spent the third day in a similar way, avoiding the scores of Fulani who had taken over vast areas, grazing their cattle and occupying villages whose original owners had fled.
On the third night, they saw signs of a large community that was likely a Christian settlement.
“We walked cautiously towards the community after saying yet another prayer,” said Monica.
Free At last
It turned out to be Maro town—a town inhabited by the Christian Adara ethnic group of Kajuru County in Kaduna State.
“The volunteer guards who intercepted us on the outskirts of the town were happy that we made it. But they said we should avoid going to the army or police. They contacted our people in Boto,” said Thomas.
For the first time in over seven weeks, they slept like human beings at the home of a local pastor in Maro.
“That’s how we were evacuated today and are about to go see a doctor,” said Monica.
Luka Binniyat and Mike Odeh James are conflict reporters based in Kaduna.
