Now, ritualists lay siege to Katsina  
Written by Lawal Ibrahim, Katsina    
Sunday, 18 October 2009 01:25  
Residents of Katsina city and its environs are living in fear as a result of an upsurge in cases of missing persons who are believed to have been abducted for ritual purposes.
Over the past few weeks, tension has mounted in Katsina, the home-town of President Yar’adua, as a result of reported incidences of abduction of men, women and children to strange places for strange purposes. Some who were lucky returned to recount their harrowing experiences, but many have not been so fortunate. This raises a lot of concern, as more and more people carry-out their daily activities in fears and suspicion.

From the complaints at police stations and to the press, most of the victims were abducted while boarding commercial vehicles such as taxi cabs and commercial motorcycles. Many of those who escaped and were lucky to recount their ordeals claimed that there were attempts to hypnotise them by the use of powdery or watery substances. The substances, they claimed, were thrown at them so that they could become unconscious.

One man who claimed to have escaped being abducted, Lawal Abdullahi Kerau told Sunday Trust  that what he could recall was the spray of a cent- like deodorant by the man who offered to assist him with a ride to one of the hotels in the state capital. Later, he was found in an unconscious state by an official of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) who was on patrol. Lawal said he was found in an unconscious state at Gidan Mutum Daya village over 100 kilometres away from the city centre, along Katsina-Kano road.

Lawal told this reporter that the man with whom he had been acquainted after three days of their meeting during one of the high society wedding in Katsina, had attempted to take him to Kano in his BMW. But he was lucky to have been rescued by the NDLEA official who became suspicious after Lawal failed to answer his repeated calls.

The victim said further that he had even collapsed when the officer opened the BMW car door. His abductor, however, smartly hopped into his car and drove off while the NDLEA officials made frantic attempts to resuscitate him. When it became apparent later that the BMW owner actually wanted to abduct Lawal, the NDLEA patrol official used their van to track him down, but they were unsuccessful.

Also narrating her ordeal, another lucky survivor Hajiya Asiya Mamman of Rafindadi Quarters, told Sunday Trust that she had boarded a taxi cab from her home to Rahamawa area in Katsina metropolis. To her dismay, the three occupants of the vehicles, whom she later discovered, were accomplices in the criminal act, drove past where she would have alighted. They gave the excuse that they were taking another lady in the taxi to her destination first. Incidentally, the ‘lady,’ who wore a veil turned out to be a man who had disguised himself as a woman.

Hajiya Mamman claimed that she was thrown out of the vehicle at Are Village along Kano road when she raised an alarm. She cried for help at a spot where she had noticed a crowd in the village, strategically to attract attention and get rescued. “Apart from this, all the while I suspected I had run into an evil vehicle, I began to offer intense prayers to Allah. This actually made my abductors to feel uncomfortable, and they told me so.”

Another victim, Fatima Yakubu Ibrahim, though she was lucky to have escaped later met another ugly fate. According to her father, Malam Habibu, after Fatima escaped the first adoption, she boarded a bus to return to the city. Ironically the vehicle took her to the same house somewhere at Dutun Maliki area in Kano from where she had earlier escaped.


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According to her father, a renowned Islamic scholar, Fatima had boarded a taxi cab at Rafindadi quarters to abattoir area of Katsina metropolis along with five other women from where a driver threw some powdery substance at her. She later found herself locked up in a dark room along with some other women in Kano. Malam Habibu told Sunday Trust that his daughter discovered that she had spent two days in the room before she regained consciousness. She was helped to escape from the house by a security guard.

After this first escape, Fatima sought to take a bus out of Kano to Katsina. Unfortunately for her, the vehicle she boarded took her back to the very house from where she had earlier escaped. Her abductors now hauled her and two additional women Fatima met into a vehicle and drove them from Kano to Kaduna this time. Again she was lucky. The leader of the kidnappers instructed his aides to release Fatima because she was crying like a baby. Her father confessed to Sunday Trust that while Fatima was missing the family prayed intensively to Allah for her to be safe wherever she was.

In the case of Mohammed Tukur, a lecturer with Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, he was kidnapped on a commercial motorcycle, which he boarded at Kofar Kaura area of the metropolis. He claimed that the motorcyclist threw a powdery substance on him, but he was lucky. The motorcycle’s tyre was punctured while they were on the ride. What the motorcyclist did was to abandon the lecturer, who had become unconscious, at the spot and escape from the scene. Tukur was found by passers-by who help to resuscitate him.

Our correspondent who visited the home of Malam Abba Umaru Tayoyi quarters was told by a mother, Malama Hafsat Isa that her 12-year-old, Abba, who came for vacation from Kano was yet to be found since Friday October 9, 2009 when he went to the mosque for Juma’at prayers at Dahiru Mangal’s Juma’at Mosque, a few metres away from their home.

She said the family had searched all hospitals and places where they expected Abba to have visited, but all in vain. The woman added that she would prefer to see the corpse of his son rather than live with the suspense that he is missing.

Malam Aminu Bala, also told Sunday Trust that his wife, Hajara and son, Ahmadu, were recovered two days after they boarded a motorcycle from their home in Tudun Wada area en route Yar’adua quarters and were declared missing. According to him, his wife was rescued by a security personnel at the house where she had been taken to. The security man, Bala told Sunday Trust, took Hajara out through the Steel Rolling Mill road in Katsina, after her son, Ahmadu, had been barbed and was about to be slaughtered.        

Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Abdulmumini Kabir Usman in an interview with newsmen raised alarm about the escalation of the reported cases of missing persons in the state who are suspected to have been captured for ritual purposes. The emir described the phenomenon as disturbing, revealing that she received reports of missing persons on a daily basis in his palace.

The emir, at the press conference, said he had directed all his district, village and wards heads to keep watchful eyes strangers and report suspicious movements to the authorities. He called on the people to purify their hearts and fear God by avoiding evil acts. He also pledged to liaise with all security agencies to fish out the perpetuators of the criminal acts.

The emir said his palace would set up a committee, comprising of representatives of various security agencies and all stakeholders, to keep watch at suspected places where ritual activities could take place, such as graveyards. He gave them the task of seeking ways of ending the ugly incidences.

In the same vein, Jama’atul Izalatul Bidi’a Wa’igamatul Sunnah, during a national preaching session at Danmusa last weekend, directed all its chapters to mobilize local imams to begin a special prayer session (Qunut) in their mosques with a view to bringing an end to the situation and expose the perpetuators of these dastardly acts.

Already, many residents are beginning to avoid public transportation system and strange vehicles. Where a visit to family members and well-wishers become necessary, the people preferred to trek in group, to escape falling victims of circumstances.

Malam Yakubu Ibrahim, told Sunday Trust that, though his daughter escaped by whiskers as a result of intensive prayers mounted by her parents, he did not know the fate of about with seven other persons kidnapped  along with his daughter when she was taken to ‘a dark house in Kaduna.’

Sunday Trust reports that there are many people with harrowing tales to share of their escape in Katsina as a result of this kidnapping on saga which begins to rear its head sometime in early September 2009 and become more pronounced these past few days.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Aaron Maina, however denied the claim of high incidences and said, the command did not receive a single complaint over the issue.  He also urged the public to demonstrate confidence in the police by reporting such ugly experiences, because the police authorities could only investigate cases if they have enough information to work with.

When asked why he didn’t report the case of his daughter’s abduction to the police, Alhaji Ibrahim said, “I don’t believe the police can help in any way. I would rather pray to Allah.”