My 3rd Birthday

Today, I'm celebrating my 3rd birthday for surviving after my daughter, Laila, and I were kidnapped exactly one year ago! 

Find, below, links to the story:

https://dailytrust.com/our-tortuous-journey-to-kidnappers-den 

https://youtu.be/8ax1BIEB7Tg 

https://youtu.be/c2yjjL6ovK8 

The first birthday was, of course, the day I was born and my second birthday was the day I narrowly escaped death, when I was nearly lynched by a rampaging mob at Gonin-Gora settlement along Kaduna-Abuja road. 

Read the story from the following link:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155884546968601&id=657383600 

And now, kidnapping is at its all time high around my hometown, Bakori, and neighboring villages. In the past one month, at least, many people have been kidnapped in Bakori, Funtua and neighboring villages. 

The period between August and September each year seems to be the best time for the kidnappers to perpetrate their nefarious activities as the thick plants in the farms provide ample cover for the criminals. 

Although, Bakori is not bordered by any forest the kidnappers take their victims to, most of the Bakori kidnappers seem to take their victims to Kidandan forest in Giwa Local Government Area, Kaduna State, where we were taken. 

One of the victims snatched recently, a nursing mother of twins, who couldn't make the long, tortuous journey, had to be abandoned together with her twin babies by the bandits. While returning, she passed through Ɗanja, which suggested that it was the route to Kidandan forest. 

And some informants recently arrested in Jabiri, Funtua, confessed that they were drug couriers for the kidnappers in Kidandan forest: one of the names they mentioned among the kidnappers, was among those who held my daughter captive. 

The informants also confirmed that some of the kidnappers used to live in Fulani settlements around Jabiri and were family and known to most of their victims. 

A few months after we were released by our abductors, my daughter, while coming back from school in Funtua, on a commercial tricycle, NAPEP, saw one of her abductors pushing his motorcycle in a village called Tarzana, along the way: their eyes locked for a brief moment before they passed each other.

One of the victims detained with us confirmed to us that he had recognized, at least, two of the kidnappers as people who had lived in a village called Mashanya, near Bakori, a long time ago. 

There's a pattern that could be established about the kidnappers pestering Bakori and Funtua Local Government Areas: most of them were inhabitants of those areas and they have now mostly relocated to Kidandan forest from where they come and unleash mayhem.