Honestly, the bandit activity that affected me happened one day in the month of August 2025, at night, at exactly 1:00 am. I had sick children, so I set an alarm to wake up and give them drugs. When I woke up, I started hearing gunshots. I tried to inform some people, but I didn’t have credit on my phone. Later, bandits started knocking on our door and my husband was not around.
There was one girl sleeping with me. I woke her up to hide. I also hid my two children, one in the wardrobe and the other one in the toilet. I then began to pray for my rescue. A few minutes later they stopped knocking, so I went out to escape but they knocked on the door again. From there I realised that they wanted to come in. I now locked my room and went to the toilet and locked myself in with the child.
My neighbour was there trying to contact relevant security personnel but was unsuccessful. They came into the house and shot the gun. I began to cry. One of them said, “Open the room and save your wife. If you open, we’re doing nothing to her.” They expected my husband to be around. I refused to open. They tried to open it themselves.
From there, I gave up and opened it. I came out, and they asked me where my husband was. I said he was not around. They asked for money. I said I didn’t have any. They said they would kill me if I didn’t show them where he was hiding. I told them I had something to sell, because I was selling detergent and soap. They got a sack and packed everything. They said we should go. I told them I had sick children and I was not feeling fine, but they said no, they would go with me.
They operated for about two hours. On our way, I was very stressed. I told them, and they said I should drop one child to be comfortable for the trekking. I said no, but I wanted them to provide an alternative for me.
There were six of them who entered my room. Three of them were in uniforms, two in personal dress, while the other one wore a singlet and boxers. On our way, the one with the singlet said he wanted to go and find shoes. But after going with the detergent and soap, he didn’t come back, so that’s why we suspect he was an informant or something of that nature.
After we reached a hill in the morning, they kept us there. They began to ask me what properties my husband had. I told them he wasn’t wealthy. They said, “What’s his business?” I told them he was a health worker. They asked about his salary. I told them ten thousand naira because he is a casual staff member. They didn’t agree, thinking, how can he build a house with just a salary of ten thousand? They asked me if he had a car or motorcycle. I told them no. They asked me what we were eating. I told them normal food. They said no, I was eating highly nutritious food and that was why my body looked so fresh. I told them it was breastfeeding that made my body develop rapidly.
They moved on with us to their hideout. I asked for water. They said I was not serious. They brought rope to tie me. One of my children – the six-year-old – said no, they should tie him instead. After some exchange of words, they allowed me to stay untied.
They brought food but they said only the child would eat. Because of the stress, the boy didn’t eat the food.
One of the twin babies was sick. I told them to give me some medicine. They gave me Boska paracetamol to dilute. I gave it to him, but he didn’t get well. I told them he was still sick and about to die. The Oga said if he died, let’s just throw him in a hole.
They called my husband, telling him if he was ready to receive his family, he should bring fifteen million naira. He said he didn’t have it. They said if he didn’t have it, how did he build this house? And it is just a normal house, a room and parlour. Because they are Fulani, they saw the house was cemented, so they thought there was money there.
They just switched off the phone and told me, “Maybe you’re going to stay here forever, because your husband doesn’t love you.” I told them, “He loves me but he doesn’t have the money you demanded.”
There is one of them that normally went to a nearby village and bought food for us just to sympathise with us. We even became familiar with him. The other day I asked him if I could pray. He told me there was no chance to pray here. After some hours, he allowed us to pray and told us not to let their oga know.
One day, the guy who kidnapped us played an audio clip where Mallam Pantami was saying that whenever you’re in a bad condition, you should pray to God. He asked me to listen. He told me, “What I want you to know is that you are already kidnapped, so we can’t release you freely. But we’ll do everything possible to reduce the amount of money we demanded because we noticed that your husband doesn’t have the money and people are disturbing us about your release.”
He asked me, “Who is your father? Because people are disturbing us about your release.” I told him my father is not alive. He said, “Honestly, we cannot kidnap someone and release them freely without collecting ransom.”
Then another person came and asked, “Where is the mother of twins? How I wish her husband would leave her for me; we’ll return the twins to him.” Aggressively, his oga shut him down and said he didn’t want to hear that again. In fact, he didn’t want to see him in that place again. He took him and left the place.
After he came back, he asked me, “If we release these twins, do you have someone who will breastfeed them?” I said no. He said, “Can you stay here with us?” I said no. He asked, “Why?” I said, “Nothing.” He said, “Okay, is it because we’re criminals?” I said no.
He said, “Today we discussed with your husband about your release. He said he will bring the money tomorrow. Out of fifteen million, we reduced it to three million five hundred thousand naira. So if he comes, we can’t release you all. We’ll release the twins and the other child. Consider yourself a resident of our hideout.” I said, “That’s my destiny.”
Surprisingly, in the morning he brought detergent for me and assigned someone to fetch water so I could wash our clothes. I said no, because we had already worn the clothes.
From there, we began to celebrate. My child, AK, said that if we returned home, I should cook spaghetti and macaroni for him. I said okay.
They went to collect the money. I began to hear gunshots. I asked our guard, “What am I hearing that sounds like gunshots?” He didn’t say anything. After receiving a phone call, he cursed. Bandits began to come out in uniforms and take cover. I asked him, “What happened?” He said, “You won’t know until Oga comes. Couldn’t you tell us your husband was wicked?” I asked him, “What happened?” He said, “I will not tell you until we’re safe.”
So what happened was that my husband gave someone in Dutsin-ma the money to bring to them. While he was coming, a new commander was also coming to assess the situation in the bush with his bulletproof vehicle. So they clashed with the Army, and they said my husband sent them there. They said they must kill my child today. They would send the video to his father so he would know he made a mistake. I knelt down and begged them not to.
They said, “Can’t you tell us that your husband is wicked?” I had no option. I said yes. But I still begged him not to kill my child, because I was there with them and I didn’t know what my husband planned. I hugged my child, AK, and began to cry. One of them said, “Unhug him, please.” I said, “Sorry.”
Honestly, I chose to be killed instead of my child. He accompanied me out of sympathy, and now you want to kill him? They said I should choose between AK and the twin babies. I said the twins. They asked me why. I said, “This boy loves me more, and that’s why he accompanied me, but these ones don’t even know what’s going on. That’s why I chose them to be killed, since you insist on killing one of them.”
He said maybe I’m from a scholar’s family. Anytime he intended to do something to me, he’d end up not doing it.
“Look at her,” he said. “She said I should kill the twins.” One of them said, “Oga, just kill them. What are you waiting for?” He asked me to arrange them. I did. One of them shot. I was very scared. I thought he had shot them to death because my eyes were closed during the shooting. But luckily, he didn’t shoot them.
They began to exchange words among themselves about whether to kill AK or not. My head was hurting during the argument. One of them said, “Let us release the mother and hold the boy so that he can work for us.” In the end, they didn’t kill him. He was already sick, and since that day, he hasn’t recovered.
They assigned me to tell my husband that they killed AK. I had no option. I told him that they killed AK. He said that was his destiny.
The following day, they called him and said, “Did you gather the 30 million for us to release one child and your wife to you?” He said that was all he had. They were going to kill one twin baby that day. They still assigned me to tell him that they killed Hassan. They even fired a shot just so he could hear the sound. He also said that was his destiny.
From that day, we spent three days without seeing the Oga. He had instructed them not to give us food. The other one with the scarred face came with cow milk and gave it to me to feed my child.
After continued negotiations, the money was reduced to six million and was brought to them. But I didn’t know; they just called me and said, “You’re going home.”
From the day they kidnapped me, I had never seen a heartbreaking day like that one. Because all I thought was that I was going with all my children. I carried my twins and called AK. They said, “No. Who told you you’re going with him?” I was shocked! He said, “Just leave him.” I said, “Sorry, if you cannot allow me to go with him, I’ll just stay here with him.” He said, “If you sit down again, you’ll remain there forever.” I said, “AK, take heart.” AK said, “Mum, I accompanied you and now you’re going to leave me here?” That’s what shocked me beyond expectation.
I went to our guard. Though he was very wicked, I told him, “Please take care of my child.” He said, “Do you have your husband’s phone number?” I said yes. He said, “Give it to me.” I did. He said, “Hopefully AK will be safe here. And I’ll be calling you so you can talk to him.” I said, “Thank you.”
We moved on. Four motorcycles escorted me. I asked them to find a hijab to cover my body. They said I must go like that, because I came without a hijab and shoes. They dropped me on the road. I didn’t know the place. They gave me one thousand naira and said if I found a commercial motorcyclist, he should take me to Dutsin-ma. If I didn’t get one, another gang of bandits would kidnap me again, because it was their route.
I sat down, crying. Every motorcyclist refused to stop and carry me because they didn’t want to stay there. It was a risky area. After some minutes, an old woman came and asked me what was wrong. She said, “No one can carry you here. Just trek to Dutsin-ma.” I couldn’t.
Luckily, one motorcyclist came carrying petrol. He stopped and asked me, “What happened?” I told him. He said, “Are you the mother of the twins who were kidnapped in Kurfi?” I said yes. He said, “It’s hard to find someone who will carry you here, but let me see how I can help.”
He stopped someone and explained to him so that he could help. From there to Dutsin-ma wasn’t very far, but the man said I must pay five thousand naira. The man said no problem. He collected the one thousand from me and added four thousand to make it five thousand. Then he gave it to the other guy and gave me another one thousand naira to travel to Kurfi from Dutsin-ma.
We arrived in Dutsin-ma at night. I couldn’t even recognise anything. Wherever I approached people and talked to them, they just ignored me as if I were a mad woman. That’s what hurt me. I cried. Someone asked me what happened. I explained to him. He sympathised with me. I asked him for water. He said, “We won’t give you water; let us just give you Lipton first.” He said, “Do you know anyone here in Dutsin-ma?” I said yes, and I told them the area. He said, “Before then, you’re supposed to call your husband.”
I called him. He said, “Is that you?” I said yes. He thanked God and asked, “Where is AK?” I said, “AK is still there in captivity.”
After I was released, we kept communicating with them about the issue of AK. They said the ransom was one million five hundred thousand. Later, they reduced it to one million.
AK was released – ten days after they let me go – in a very tragic condition. He had been beaten by them seriously. We battled with trauma. But here in the hospital, an NGO has assisted us with medical care.
In all these, what hurt me more is that my husband was the one who was supposed to trust me, but he didn’t believe me. Everything has changed. They didn’t embrace me, not even for one day.
I explained to him, but he didn’t agree.
As narrated by: Haulatu Hamisu – 26 (Kurfi, Katsina).
This snippet is published as part of the series, What We Lost to the Bandits.
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