Following an attack by armed bandits on the vehicle in which they were travelling from Jos to Abuja on July 23, 2023, near a village called Andaha, a victim among those kidnapped, Ms Emmanuella Golit has disclosed that fear of joint patrol teams comprising the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Air Force closing in on them led to the abductors abandoning her and other victims.
According to Emmanuella, the village where the bandits struck is located some 130 kilometers from Jos and about 25 kilometres to Ankwanga, the next main town on the Jos-Abuja Road.
Narrating her ordeal, she said after attending the wedding ceremony of a family member in Jos, she was travelling from Jos to Abuja, in a private car with four other occupants, including two co-travellers she was acquainted with while two others were military officers.
She said on approaching Andaha village, they heard gunshots ahead at a location that was mainly surrounded by forests and sparsely inhabited with rural scattered farms.
She said they sighted kidnappers who blocked the road and ahead of the vehicle she was travelling in were two other vehicles from which the passengers were fleeing from the kidnappers into adjoining bushes.
Sensing danger as the kidnappers were firing into the air, the driver of their car abruptly came to a stop and tried to reverse but in the process, the car went off the road and skidded into the forest.
They all ran out of the car with three of them running in the same direction while two others ran in another.
"As they ran, they heard screaming and gunshots behind them. The three of them that ran in the same direction were caught by the kidnappers while their other colleagues managed to escape.
"The gunmen that kidnapped us spoke in Hausa. The kidnappers held us and five other people at gunpoint as their other colleagues joined them.
"After walking a great distance into the forest while it was raining, and pitch dark, they stopped at some point, they stopped when they felt they could not be easily traced, then proceeded to interrogate us and asked us to disclose our tribes, occupations and our fathers' occupations.
"I told them that I was a Primary School Assistant Teacher with a meagre salary and that my biological father was also a retired teacher, whose pension was too small to take care of his needs. They further inquired if I had money to pay to free myself. I replied in the negative saying I could raise N500,000 only.
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"They rejected the amount demanding that they would only accept N100 million from each of us and that if I did not pay up, they would take me to their boss, who was in Kaduna State and he would marry me into his harem.
"While the captors were taking us to a village in Kaduna State in the night, they noticed that some soldiers were patrolling and searching for us. Intermittently, they would duck and ask us (captives) to keep quiet and lay low.
"In the process of walking for an extended period without shoes, I had big blisters underneath my feet. I sprained my right ankle, stumbled and fell. I was in severe pain and started to lag behind the rest of the group because I couldn't walk fast anymore as it was also very dark and I couldn't see well.
"As I could not walk fast, they threatened to kill me if I did not behave myself. They told me to stop pleading otherwise, they would waste me and my family will not be able to find my remains.
"They kept yelling at me to walk faster and suddenly, one of them came from behind and hit me with a rifle on my ankle. At that point, I could not walk any longer and started to cry and was scooting on my butt.
"When I noticed they were way ahead, I changed direction, struggled to walk back towards the main road with the help of intermittent lights of vehicles and vehicular sounds until I passed out by the roadside."
