How I escaped herdsmen killings …An unseen voice whispered to me to enter a hole
An Abuja based business woman who came to Lagos for a conference, Mrs. Amaka Nwauzo has narrated how she miraculously escaped from the hands of Fulani herdsmen who dressed in Nigemilitary uniform on her way back to Abuja from Lagos.
Mrs. Nwauzo, who is a member of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry said the incident happened after a two day conference she attended in Lagos tagged “Mothers of the Nation Conference” organized by the Christian Women Association early this year. She explained that the aim of the gathering was for the participants to pray against the continuous killing of innocent souls particularly in the Northern region of the country, and also for the forth coming 2019 general elections, not knowing that she would fall victim of the deadly sect.
Narrating her ordeal she said,
“After the conference which was a successful one, I went to one of the popular transport companies in Lagos to board a bus going to Abuja. That was on the 11th April, 2018. The vehicle was an eighteen sitter bus. We left Lagos before 7.30am. It was a smooth journey, we did not encounter any problem on the way until at about 5:25pm on the highway between Lokoja and Abaji, just very close to the military check point. We saw more than 50 men on Nigeria military uniform with sophisticated guns in their hands”.
“Initially, we thought they were Nigeria military men. They stopped the Camry Car before us and ordered the five men in the car to come down including the driver. Immediately, some of the suspected herdsmen starting shooting on the air as if there was a war. Our own vehicle was also stopped. All the men in the bus where l was, ran in to the bush including the driver leaving me and two other women inside the bus.
By then all the vehicles coming behind us were reversing with a great speed. Also, vehicles coming in the front started turning back. It was then a great fear came upon me, it was a horrible situation. l started praying asking God to come to my rescue”.
Continuing, she said, “Immediately, they came to our vehicle and ordered the three women left in the car including myself to enter in to the forest, while the other five men from the Camry car were already marching towards a thick forest with their hands up. We the women, were also ordered to follow them by force with our hands up also. One of them hit his gun on my neck and commanded me to move faster. I was afraid. As we were moving they were shooting continuously on the air”.
According to Mrs Nwauzo, as they continued moving into a very thick and fearful forest, she heard a voice from her right ear telling her to enter a hole. “The voice said to me, enter this hole, and when I looked at my left, behold there was a hole and I now came down gently and entered the hole and the herdsmen passed through the hole without seeing me.
“It was when all of them moved in to the forest together with other travellers that Nigerian military men came and started shooting again inside the forest. I was still inside the hole thinking that they were still the herdsmen, but one of them started making calls. That was when I knew that they were Nigerian military men because they were speaking English unlike the herdsmen that were all communicating in Hausa language”.
She said at that point she raised her hands and started calling them for help. “They came and rescued me out of the hole and brought me to the main road where our vehicle was packed. By then the other male passengers who ran in to the bush started coming out including the driver to enter the vehicle, and that was how we continued with our journey to Abuja , but the remaining two women and the five men in the Camry car went with them”.
“It was after a week l learnt that one of the two women was released with the sum of two million Naira and according to her, they did not go home as they came as she and other female victims were sexually abused each by ten herdsmen daily”.
“I will advise that women of God should come together, pray and fast for this country because what I saw that day calls for earnest prayer. If not God that came to my rescue I wouldn’t be alive to narrate this scenario and I am sure that this horror happens every day on our roads. Women and the young girls are worst hit, they are being rapped, infected with Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDS) and eventually killed”.
“Our government should stop paying lip service to the issue of security, there is no security in this country, innocent people are being killed in their thousands and nothing is being done about it. People can no longer travel by land because of the fear of being kidnapped, raped and killed. Something should be done urgently, people have to be alive before they will be governed”.
“When we started having problem in this country in the area of security was when the government brought the military in our roads, allowing them to be on the road, while we have the police. The police should be well equipped with the necessary tools to work with. They should also be paid very well so as to encourage them to be more effective and efficient in their jobs”, she advise
This is just one out of the numerous cases of abduction of passengers by Fulani herdsmen especially on the Northern routes. Two days after the incident, it was also learnt that the same Fulani herdsmen attacked a vehicle and took away eighteen passengers at that same sport where the aforementioned incident happened.
Report shows that Fulani herdsmen have kidnapped thousands of travellers particularly those travelling to the North. Sadly, majority of their victims have been killed because of the inability of their people to meet up with the financial demands of the kidnappers.
Some time ago, some travellers on the ever-busy Abuja-Keffi expressway, were reportedly attacked by armed robbers suspected to be Fulani herdsmen who carted away their mobile phones and money.
Accoridng to reports, the robbery took place at about 10:00am on the expressway close to a village called Barde, after Gidan Waya in Kaduna State, a few kilometres from Jos, Plateau state capital.
It was gathered that the robbers numbering about ten, with five of them wielding dangerous weapons, including guns and machetes, came from the bush, stopped vehicles and ordered passengers to lie facedown.
The passengers including market women and others were frisked at gunpoint. The robbers however fled into the bush after 30 minutes of successful operation, when they sighted some soldiers from Keffi in Nasarawa state.
On Thursday, February 8, 2018, no fewer than seven persons were reportedly injured when some miscreants suspected to be Fulani herdsmen opened fire and shot indiscriminately at travellers along the Unenurhie community axis of the East-West road of Delta State.
President emeritus of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Dr. Chris Ekiyor who confirmed the incident disclosed that his car was riddled with bullets.
He further disclosed that a member of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, and six others sustained varying degrees of injuries during the attack.
Mrs. Nwauzo, who is a member of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry said the incident happened after a two day conference she attended in Lagos tagged “Mothers of the Nation Conference” organized by the Christian Women Association early this year. She explained that the aim of the gathering was for the participants to pray against the continuous killing of innocent souls particularly in the Northern region of the country, and also for the forth coming 2019 general elections, not knowing that she would fall victim of the deadly sect.
Narrating her ordeal she said,
“After the conference which was a successful one, I went to one of the popular transport companies in Lagos to board a bus going to Abuja. That was on the 11th April, 2018. The vehicle was an eighteen sitter bus. We left Lagos before 7.30am. It was a smooth journey, we did not encounter any problem on the way until at about 5:25pm on the highway between Lokoja and Abaji, just very close to the military check point. We saw more than 50 men on Nigeria military uniform with sophisticated guns in their hands”.
“Initially, we thought they were Nigeria military men. They stopped the Camry Car before us and ordered the five men in the car to come down including the driver. Immediately, some of the suspected herdsmen starting shooting on the air as if there was a war. Our own vehicle was also stopped. All the men in the bus where l was, ran in to the bush including the driver leaving me and two other women inside the bus.
By then all the vehicles coming behind us were reversing with a great speed. Also, vehicles coming in the front started turning back. It was then a great fear came upon me, it was a horrible situation. l started praying asking God to come to my rescue”.
Continuing, she said, “Immediately, they came to our vehicle and ordered the three women left in the car including myself to enter in to the forest, while the other five men from the Camry car were already marching towards a thick forest with their hands up. We the women, were also ordered to follow them by force with our hands up also. One of them hit his gun on my neck and commanded me to move faster. I was afraid. As we were moving they were shooting continuously on the air”.
According to Mrs Nwauzo, as they continued moving into a very thick and fearful forest, she heard a voice from her right ear telling her to enter a hole. “The voice said to me, enter this hole, and when I looked at my left, behold there was a hole and I now came down gently and entered the hole and the herdsmen passed through the hole without seeing me.
“It was when all of them moved in to the forest together with other travellers that Nigerian military men came and started shooting again inside the forest. I was still inside the hole thinking that they were still the herdsmen, but one of them started making calls. That was when I knew that they were Nigerian military men because they were speaking English unlike the herdsmen that were all communicating in Hausa language”.
She said at that point she raised her hands and started calling them for help. “They came and rescued me out of the hole and brought me to the main road where our vehicle was packed. By then the other male passengers who ran in to the bush started coming out including the driver to enter the vehicle, and that was how we continued with our journey to Abuja , but the remaining two women and the five men in the Camry car went with them”.
“It was after a week l learnt that one of the two women was released with the sum of two million Naira and according to her, they did not go home as they came as she and other female victims were sexually abused each by ten herdsmen daily”.
“I will advise that women of God should come together, pray and fast for this country because what I saw that day calls for earnest prayer. If not God that came to my rescue I wouldn’t be alive to narrate this scenario and I am sure that this horror happens every day on our roads. Women and the young girls are worst hit, they are being rapped, infected with Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDS) and eventually killed”.
“Our government should stop paying lip service to the issue of security, there is no security in this country, innocent people are being killed in their thousands and nothing is being done about it. People can no longer travel by land because of the fear of being kidnapped, raped and killed. Something should be done urgently, people have to be alive before they will be governed”.
“When we started having problem in this country in the area of security was when the government brought the military in our roads, allowing them to be on the road, while we have the police. The police should be well equipped with the necessary tools to work with. They should also be paid very well so as to encourage them to be more effective and efficient in their jobs”, she advise
This is just one out of the numerous cases of abduction of passengers by Fulani herdsmen especially on the Northern routes. Two days after the incident, it was also learnt that the same Fulani herdsmen attacked a vehicle and took away eighteen passengers at that same sport where the aforementioned incident happened.
Report shows that Fulani herdsmen have kidnapped thousands of travellers particularly those travelling to the North. Sadly, majority of their victims have been killed because of the inability of their people to meet up with the financial demands of the kidnappers.
Some time ago, some travellers on the ever-busy Abuja-Keffi expressway, were reportedly attacked by armed robbers suspected to be Fulani herdsmen who carted away their mobile phones and money.
Accoridng to reports, the robbery took place at about 10:00am on the expressway close to a village called Barde, after Gidan Waya in Kaduna State, a few kilometres from Jos, Plateau state capital.
It was gathered that the robbers numbering about ten, with five of them wielding dangerous weapons, including guns and machetes, came from the bush, stopped vehicles and ordered passengers to lie facedown.
The passengers including market women and others were frisked at gunpoint. The robbers however fled into the bush after 30 minutes of successful operation, when they sighted some soldiers from Keffi in Nasarawa state.
On Thursday, February 8, 2018, no fewer than seven persons were reportedly injured when some miscreants suspected to be Fulani herdsmen opened fire and shot indiscriminately at travellers along the Unenurhie community axis of the East-West road of Delta State.
President emeritus of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Dr. Chris Ekiyor who confirmed the incident disclosed that his car was riddled with bullets.
He further disclosed that a member of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, and six others sustained varying degrees of injuries during the attack.
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