Honestly, I have faced different challenges. For example, on the 18th of August, 2025, around 2:00 a.m., it happened unexpectedly, even though there were different security personnel in the town, like the JTF, vigilantes, and civil defence.
I was at home sleeping. One of my neighbours, who is a hunter, went outside to hunt that night. But suddenly he saw them with their arms. He ran away, and they shot at him. That is how we noticed that they were in the town.
In front of my house, there is a mosque and four streetlights facing the house and the mosque. Traditionally, bandits do not attack places where there is light, because they can be sighted. But suddenly, they began to knock on my door. I was inside with my wife. My children had been sent to the village for the holiday, and only one girl was with us. While I was trying to open the door, they had already broken it down and shone a torchlight on us.
They attacked me, my wife, and the other girl. They demanded money. I told them I did not have any. Then they demanded phones, and I showed them. They took two phones. After that, they told me to lie down, and I did.
They also asked my wife, “Where is the money?” She said there was no money, but they did not agree. They said they had heard about me. So they said they would go with me.
I began to argue with them. They called three more people, making them five in total. They tied me up. I’m telling you, they spent about 30 minutes operating in the town, but there was no quick response from the security personnel.
It was only after they had taken us away that the security personnel came to rescue us, but we had already gone ahead. They stopped us at a nearby hideout. One of them surprisingly mentioned my name, but I did not know him.
We continued to move. We reached a village called Madaka. They brought a blanket and gave it to a woman to cover her body, though she was not feeling well and she had twin babies. They also gave her my shirt to cover her twin babies.
We did not reach where they kept their motorcycles until early morning. They beat us mercilessly with canes. If you look at my back, you will see the signs of their beating.
From there, they took us on their motorcycles to their hideout. We could not recognise the place. They began to ask me questions. “We have heard that you are a civil servant. You have money,” they said. “You are working in the hospital.” I told them I am a casual staff member. One of them said, “No, how can you build a house with just a ten-thousand salary?” I told them it took me ten years to build that house.
They asked the woman the same question because we work in the same place with her husband. All they had planned was to kidnap me together with him, but he was not around.
They tied us up and gave us food. After that, they stopped giving us food. The place where we went to ease ourselves was uncomfortable, and we had to share it with women.
We suffered a lot because Kurfi is one of the major towns that bandits attack almost every day. That is why the people of Kurfi have taken necessary action against them by using vigilantes.
From time to time, they would come and demand money from us. At first, they demanded three million naira, but the problem was that our relatives came with security personnel. That is what caused the delay. The deal was changed, and that is why they said they were going to collect money from our relatives individually.
They demanded 2.5 million naira. My relatives gathered the money, including taking a loan. As I am standing now, there is an 850,000 naira unpaid loan. After they paid that money, our guard said no, they must bring a new motorcycle first. They bought that motorcycle for 1.25 million naira. The negotiators also consumed about 200,000 naira. Luckily, they released me on that day.
The other woman was already released after they collected her ransom. They only held the boy, and he was later released after they collected 900,000 naira. I’m telling you, I spent 58 days in captivity. Two months.
By the time I was released, I realised I had lost everything I had, and there is still the loan. Honestly, it is very difficult, because we have nothing to repay it with. My father is not alive, and I am the eldest son in the house, so it is not easy.
I came back unhealthy. After three days, I went to the hospital for a medical checkup. They found out that I had an ulcer, typhoid, etc. That is why I am always on medication.
Currently, I don’t even have food to eat, but thank God my classmates have tried a lot because I came back home to find my house stocked with food items. The major problems are school fees and debt clearance. So I have to manage my income to ensure that I settle everything.
I lost my chemist shop; I lost my livestock. Before this, I was handling all my responsibilities. But now I cannot, because of this incident.
On the day of the kidnapping, they didn’t kill anyone. They shot one person, and my neighbour went for surgery that cost about 1 million naira. His wife was also shot in the stomach.
The major problem we experienced as captives was hunger. Normally, we eat three times a day, but in their hands, they only gave us groundnuts as food, or sometimes fresh beans or roasted maize. There were almost 30 of us there.
There was a day they asked me to say goodbye to my parents if they didn’t bring a new motorcycle, because they would kill me. Luckily, they bought the new motorcycle.
It was raining that day. In the morning, they brought the motorcycle. One of them called me, and I thought they were going to kill me, but he said, “No, your relatives brought the motorcycle. You are going home now.”
It was a journey of about fourteen hours before we reached the town. My eyes were closed the whole time; that is why I am still having eye problems. I am facing all these health challenges, and honestly, there is also a serious financial problem.
As narrated by: Kabir Garba – 43 (Kurfi, Katsina).
This snippet is published as part of the series, What We Lost to the Bandits.
Discover more from Chronycles
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Published by