One day around 8 o'clock at night on 6th September 2021 in our house in Bakori, we were sitting in the parlour with my younger brother Muhammad, my younger sister Fatima and one of our neighbours, Nana Iro, who was holding her little daughter, we suddenly heard a commotion as our gate was pulled open. Muhammad got up and went to the parlour door to see what was going on. He rushed back into the parlour and started shouting, "Kidnappers!" "Kidnappers!" "Kidnappers!" He went through the parlour and into the main house to hide in my father's room. We suddenly heard the sounds of guns being shot.

At the time, I was sitting in the parlour watching television. A drama was playing out which was titled, "Kaddarar Rayuwa" from Bollywood movies. Ironically, the title of the film, which meant, "The Fate Of Life", was what was about to happen to us. The Kidnappers rushed into the parlour, two of them, all holding riffles. While one of them went into the main house the other one stood in the parlour with us. He went where my mother's phone and my tab were charging, disconnected them and took them. He then told me to lie down on the ground in the parlour, but I refused. That angered him and he hit me on the head and told me to go out together with him.

Meanwhile, my little sister and our neighbour, Nana Iro, had ran into the main house to hide in my mother's room, closely followed by the second kidnapper. While I was standing outside together with the Kidnapper on the veranda, I saw one of our neighbours, a boy, being held by three other Kidnappers with guns. The boy is one of the sons of the security guard to our next door neighbour. He is a boy of about 20 years who is helping out as our security guard and he sleeps in the guard room by the gate of our house. Actually, he was the one who opened the gate for the Kidnappers when they knocked, thinking that they were regular visitors to our house. They found him sitting in front of the room by the gate charging his phone. The first thing they did was to seize his phone and the three of them stood by him at the gate.

It was while the Kidnapper and I were standing at the veranda looking at the three Kidnappers who were standing at the gate, the other kidnapper that had gone into the main house came out together with my father, mother and our neighbour. At first they wanted to go with all of us, then they asked my father whether my mother and our neighbour were both his wives and he said yes. My father later told us that he said yes because he feared if he said the other woman was his neighbour's wife they would have gone with her too. But when they realised that we were all one family they decided to pick just my father and I. This was a decision they made after taking all of us outside the house. They then instructed my mother and our neighbour's wife to go back home. They took us outside the estate where we joined other victims they had abducted from other houses.

At the end of the estate where they gathered the other victims, some of the Kidnappers were knocking on the door to the last house and asking the owner to come out, but he refused. They broke down the door and pulled him out of the house. It was at that moment I counted nine of us victims. I also counted the Kidnappers and discovered that they were twenty and all but one were carrying riffles and the other one was carrying a matchete.

While we were standing and waiting to go, my father pleaded with the leader of the kidnappers to release me and go with him telling them I was a sickle cell patient. Initially, some of them rejected the idea but the leader sympathized with my father and wanted to release me, but all the others advised against it. So, they matched all of us into the bush in the rain-soaked farms outside our estate. As it was in September, it was during the rainy season. As a matter of fact it began to drizzle.

We started walking in the dark wet night without shoes in a single file. Some of the kidnappers led the way followed by the victims walking side by side with some other kidnappers and the rest of the kidnappers brought up the rear of the row. My father was walking beside me and they shepherded us like cattle. All the kidnappers were of the fulani ethnic group.

We walked for some time with rain beating us and soaking us wet. We came across a big river and crossed it, which had a lot of water in it. After a long time, we came to a road that crossed our paths which I later learned was the road leading to Ɗanja from Bakori. Just before we came onto the road, there were sounds of gunshots splitting the air that made all of us run back to hide into the maize farms. And our abductors responded by opening fire with their guns. For several minutes there was an exchange of gunfire between our abductors and the other people shooting towards us. We were later told that the people shooting at our abductors were vigilantes sent from Bakori to rescue us. They tried to head us off by going round from Bakori towards Ɗanja from the main road.

I found myself held by the hand by one of the kidnappers who caught my head and pushed me down, making me fall face down into the water between the ridges in the farm and taking a gulp of the muddy water. When I turned around, I saw my father lying beside me. Then the gunshots stopped as abruptly as they had erupted. The bandit holding my hand ordered us to get up and cross the road. Gradually, we gathered by the roadside. 

When I looked around, there was only my father and the rest of the bandits, but all the other captives were nowhere to be found. They had all taken advantage of the confusion and escaped into the dark cover provided by the dark night and the thickness of the maize and corn farms. The kidnappers were very angry and they started blaming each other for the lapse. For a moment they decided to go back and look for the captives but some of them decided against the decision. 

After they had calmed down, we proceeded with our journey following the cattle route. We continued to trek barefooted for many hours through the bush and the farms and sometimes along the cattle route. They guided us along the way avoiding settlements until it was nearly morning when we came to rest in the middle of one large maize farm after crossing a huge "Turare" plantation. There, they made us sit down in the drizzling rain and by that time it was already morning. We sat in that farm throughout the day hiding there, shivering from the cold rain and without food till evening. 

At dusk, they made us continue with our journey. Not long after, we came across a tarred road which I was later told was the Zaria-Funtua road. After careful observation on both sides, we all crossed the road to the other side. The bandits then decided to go back to the road and attack commuters with the hope of getting more victims to make up for the lost captives. A group of about five went back while the rest of us continued to walk deep down into the bush along the cattle route. Not long after, we heard gunshots which rented the air. It went on for a few minutes before it stopped. A few more minutes we heard the bandits running towards us. When they finally caught up with us we learned that the mission was unsuccessful. They were unable to get more victims. 

We continued to trek until we reached the outskirts of a village, carefully going around it. Before reaching that village, we came across a broken dam that had a lot of water gushing through. Some of the bandits crossed first before I was led through to the other side. We then stopped to wait for the others to cross over. I saw the others leading my father through the gushing water. My father was having trouble walking steady in the strong current of the passing water. He was being led by two of the bandits, one in the front and the other from the back. They were shouting at him and warning him to keep steady otherwise they would push him into the running water and move on. I became scared and pleaded with them not to push him into the water. Finally, with a lot of trouble, they crossed over and joined us. 

We moved on to the outskirts of the village that I overheard them mention was Maska. We found a place where we rested. They went and conferred with some people who came from the village. The people brought some food to us, which was a local food called "Dambu" in Hausa. Although it was tasteless, we had no choice but to eat. They gave us some water which we drank. We then moved on. We walked throughout the night passing through villages and settlements. They never allowed us to pass through the villages. Instead, we passed through the outskirts of the villages and settlements. 

Around 3:00 a.m. in the morning, we passed through a flooded slope with water reaching up to our buttocks. Immediately after coming out of the water we came unto an abandoned settlement. There were no people in the houses. They led us to a place in front of a mosque and started a fire to warm themselves from the cold rain. Some of them went into the nearby farms and cut off some ripe maize. They roasted the maize and gave us to eat. After we had eaten, we found a place inside the mosque and slept. I snuggled behind my father against the wall and slept. 

They woke us up around 6:00 a.m. and set off again. We continued to walk till afternoon. They then put a call through to some of their people who appeared on motorcycles. We then rode on the motorcycles which took us to the detention camps, arriving in the evening. 

All together, we spent two days before reaching the detention camp. There, we found other victims they had kidnapped from various places, men and women. There were three huts in the detention camp: one contained men, the other women and the third was occupied by the guards. 

Among the victims were those kidnapped from my hometown, Bakori, five of them. Two were girls and the other three were men, one of them was the girls' father. Then, there was a woman who was kidnapped together with her two sons. They were abducted from their home in Ƙurami, a village not far from Bakori along the way to Funtua. The trio were the family of a Katsina State member of the house of assembly. 

Luckily, the woman was a health personnel who worked in a local government close to Funtua. And among the girls was a student at a college of health technology in Daura. Those two administered drugs and injections on me whenever I became sick during my stay. As I was a sickle cell patient, I often became sick, which made our abductors procure the necessary drugs for me. 

And because I often fell sick, the kidnappers took pity on me and even pampered me. They bought chicken, fish and coka-cola drinks for me whenever they went into town. 

We stayed in the camp for eight days before my father was released. A ransom was paid, but instead of releasing us, they released my father and told him to go and bring more money before I was released. I felt very lonely after my father had left. I was always crying and falling sick, so much so that I thought I was going to die. 

Eventually, I spent nineteen more days before my father brought more money to them and I was released to him. All together, from the day we were kidnapped, my father spent ten days while I spent twenty-nine days in captivity. We finally returned home unharmed, and unmolested, thanks to almighty Allah for his protection. 

Laila Ahmad wrote from Umaru Musa Ƴar'Adua University, Katsina.