My sojourn in kidnappers’ den (II)

This is the second of a three-part series on my experience being kidnapped. The first episode was published in Daily Trust on Saturday. I recounted my travails as I perceived them at the time. In this instalment, I hope to put my experience in context of current and historic government policy, cultural shift, demographics and so on. The author remains anonymous for security reasons.

Picture this; the whole of England is only slightly bigger than Kaduna, Zamfara and Katsina states combined. Yet these three Nigerian states only have a population about 20% of England’s. If even England has large swathes of uninhabited land, imagine how big the territories bandits in these three states have access to, to roam about and conduct their nefarious activities.

During my captivity, I slowly pieced together that I was kept at a place where a loosely affiliated network of criminals of Fulani extraction have made their base. I was kept within a few hundred meters of the infamous Gide Dogo himself! Unlike the typical ‘Ruga’ where extended itinerant Fulani families live, this one was a ragtag collection of Fulani men bound by their criminal intent. The structure is inherently unstable. A case in point of this reality is the short story of how Gide Dogo came to be leader; he killed his predecessor. The kidnap process I have come to learn that these bandits have perfected a kidnap template. Broadly, they:

1. Snatch their victim. This could either be targeted or random.

2. Wait for between 24 and 48 hours to make their victims’ folks very anxious.

3.Name an asking price. This tends to be higher for targeted kidnaps than random ones. In both instances, the price is ridiculously higher that what they realistically expect to get. What do they lose if someone in a worried state agrees to pay their demand? 4. Haggle. 5. Add their leverage by threatening to kill the captive. 6. Delay some more. 7. Call for payment and pickup of the victim. This is potentially the most traumatic aspect of the whole affair. This is not a fair trade; a person is going to leave the safety and comfort of his home to head to a location of the bandits’ choosing. They will be armed. Often, they try intimidating the person making the exchange. And they seldom keep the victims in the location of the cash exchange. On making payment, they send some signal (sometimes numbered gunshots in the air). The victim is then released in some distant location.

In the part 3 of the series, I’ll enumerate courses of action that have worked well for the victim. For now, I’ll elaborate on certain aspects of my ordeal and the background.

The area I was kept, which I suspect to be the HQ of bandit activity in north western Nigeria, could not have been more than 40km from our farm, and a similar distance from Kaduna International Airport. How is this allowed to happen so close to the airport?

One of my captors bragged about how military personnel land helicopters and sell arms to them. An AK47 goes for one million naira and a thirty bullet magazine goes for N30,000, according to him. He boasted about how they even slaughtered two cows during the most recent trip by their suppliers who flew back with a little takeaway. I can’t verify the truthfulness of their claims. But this is a very serious accusation. It begs the question about the level to which the Nigerian military may be complicit!

In my particular case, the military was the first security agency that was seen by my co-workers at the farm and the case reported to after my abduction. First, they said they wouldn’t leave where they were until the district head of Sabon Birni authorised them to. Some say that may be so the district head can vouch for my farm’s reputation, else it may be a ruse to divert the soldiers’ attention. I don’t know. Despite the delay in getting his approval, they were at the site of the kidnap while I was still within 1km. Recall that after the bandits abducted us and we crossed the river, we sat for about two hours at the edge of the farm premises. If they had gone in the general direction we went, it would have been four trained soldiers against two armed but undisciplined bandits and a third unarmed one. Obviously this didn’t happen.

During the course of negotiating with the bandits on the issue of my ransom, they were audacious enough to communicate from the same phone number for the four days of contact! The obvious concern for my folks was a situation where they’d report to security agencies and a botched rescue attempt would only endanger me more. Another option would have been to alert a security agency simply so they could track the number until after the exchange of ransom-forcaptive has been concluded.

There was a story my folks came to learn about as they frantically tried to figure out the best course of action that will ensure my speedy recovery and help security agents capture the criminals so no family goes through this again. Apparently, during the delivery of ransom for another kidnap victim, at a checkpoint just before where the exchange took place, policemen searched the car carrying the relatives of the victim thoroughly. The proximity to the exchange point and the fact the police missed the large sum of money for the exchange raises eyebrows. Could the police have just searched on behalf of the bandits, whether the ransom payers are carrying weapons or even an armed person in the trunk? My folks couldn’t be sure so didn’t want to risk reporting the ransom negotiations to security agents lest they were complicit.

It is inconceivable that with the number of ransom payments that occur in the Rigasa/airport/ Birnin Gwari axis of Kaduna, security agencies don’t have a good idea where these bandits are. Some victims are kidnapped from Katsina and exchanged in Kaduna. While in captivity I overheard them speaking about kidnapping someone from Kogi! What impact does the massive security votes that top brass of the security agencies enjoy have on their reluctance to curb this menace?

I’ve alluded to the fact that all agricultural activity in the North West occurs in such areas where this scourge persists. It’s baffling how, despite government emphasis on agriculture, insecurity isn’t tackled head on. The average farmer’s profit for a year’s worth of labour is eroded with one ransom payment. Very soon, there may be no point for farming from their POV.

Another scenario might be where Hausa settlements take laws unto their own hands and we have a full blown ethnicide. This is already brewing as Hausa settlements are setting up vigilante groups that murder Fulani on sight. Recall when I was being taken to the kidnappers’ base after I’d been abducted, the abductors were extra careful around certain settlements? Well, they were scared of alerting the residents. The settlements also refuse to trade or sell anything to the Fulani. Anybody caught selling to them is also killed. That is why my abductors didn’t have anything to feed me for the first couple of days but two loaves of bread. Until they were able to steal cattle on the third day of my captivity, which they shared with me.