₦airaland Forum

How do I narrate all of it to you guys?

just how?

1st im sharing this hoping I bury all of the ashes here.

I am sharing this cos most of my friends and relatives are resident either in Kaduna or Abuja.


please and please no blaming me.


I tot I was dead.
I tot it was all over.
I tot I had died.
I tot I had been shot at.
for a moment I couldnt feel my pulse.


The ever Notorious kidnap kingpins/ Armed men on Kaduna-Abuja highway I had been hearing and reading about but had never encountered them not for once in my life.


so, I had a little project to attend to far North Katsina State.

I was done and returning from Katsina to Abuja.

I got to the motor park 5pm, the vehicle loading Abuja took about an hour to complete loading and we set out from katsina heading to Abuja exactly 6pm and I had estimated max 12midnight I would have arrived Abuja.

little did I know...
ofcourse I had my mobile phones with me. I even monitored the Real Madrid vs PSG Match via the internet on livescoredotcom

we had travelled past Zaria, past Kaduna and faced Abuja..

believe me.. at every 5 minutes interval we drove, we encountered Police check points and almost all the check points either directly or indirectly asked for money from the driver.


To some extent I was glad at the heavy presence of check points at every 5minutes interval on the Kaduna-Abuja highway and to some other extent I wasnt because it ment we had to keep stopping and stopping and ofcourse that added to journey time..


walahi I am not exaggerating. We would have encountered over 20 check points from Kaduna alone and before Zuba..

I was sitting right behind the driver and didnt nap or sleep or doze from Katsina till this point when I was woken by Men of the under-world.

Armed Herdsmen/kidnappers.

1st it was strange.
they asked the driver to bring money then I woke from my short nap, and them they ordered the driver to come down from the car.

what was strange was that, they asked the driver to come down from the passenger's side and not the driver's side.

instantly that moment I looked at the Armed man dishing orders and discovered his shoes werent normal police or army boots but those normal 'vans' shoes.

his gun wasnt the normal Assault AK rifle but double barreled.

His language wasnt the regular Hausa but sounded Fulani.


putting 2 and 2 together, I knew we had fallen victim of Armed Robbery on the highway.

same people that kidnapp.

they had guns and machete.

We were all ordered to disembark the car and lay on the bare floor with our eyes facing down and ours hands outstretched.

Next thing. I felt hands ransacking my jeans back pockets and made away with my wallet and all that was in my pocket...


what was most ironical was the fact that from Katsina thru malumfashi thru zaria, there were no Police presence on the road but on the dreaded Notorious Kaduna Abuja highway where we encountered more than 20 police checks and all of them extorting the driver was where this ugly Icincidence took place.


the incidence was about 5 minutes away from the last police check point and 3 minutes away to the last Army check point before getting to Zuba, somewhere around dikko, a road leading to Niger state.


I was shocked to my bones.
robbery on the same road heavily militarized and manned by regular Policemen, Mobile Policemen and the Army yet these under world men had a field day.


at a point, one of the bandits just felt like releasing one round and next thing I had was towaiiii...

I tot I was shot at.
I tot I was dead.
I tot I had convulsion.
I didnt know if I had urinated in my pants.

it was a very sad and ugly experience.

why am I sharing this?
I have most of my friends and family either in Kaduna or Abuja.

please and please. If you must travel, dont ply that road at night.
its danm right too risky.

I tot I would arive my home 12 midnight. Here I am 4:17am just getting home and doing this write up.

I was left with no money in my pocket.
the driver dropped us off at zuba.

from zuba I entered a vehicle to Asokoro junction and didnt have no money on me to pay.. the driver understood and let me go.

from Asokoro junction in the dead of the night I trekked to Apo resettlement.

it was a trek of my life.

life is such a gift.
life is so precious.

I had escaped death by the whiskers.
im grateful to the giver of life I am not dead.

all young boys in their 20's with guns and matchetes.

it was an ugly bitter experience I would never wish my enemy encounters...


if you aint got nothing to say, pls dont say nothing cos nobody should blame me for doing the night travel..

its something I regret and I have learnt a bitter lesson and grateful to be alive



T.he spate of insecurity in this country is fast assuming another dimension.

the scale of proliferation of small harms now is so unprecedented.
.Fulani herdsmen are just everywhere everyday.


this is my real time true story.

for a moment I felt my heart in my mouth. I was scared to death.

I was between a life and death situation and in that very moment I knew the value and essence of life.

life is such a gift.
life is too precious to be wasted.

We have shed way too much blood in Nigeria.

I feel right now so insecured.

first time first hand and I thank God I kept my nerves. I kept my cool and tagged along.
it was in a space of 10 minutes and everything went well and after they were done they asked we entered our cars and we drive off.

so what it means invariably is that they can have those 10 minutes intervally or sequencially in the course of the 24hours in a day.

at random they could have those 10 minutes maybe 3 or 4 times or more in a day and we say the road is heavily manned with Police at their own spots while armed men at their own spot like a game of soccer where u have your own half and our own half on the same pitch.

What was most amazing?
It was the same road that had over 20 police check points that had that spot of this crime.

the same road less than 8 km apart max u could have barely driven at 100km/h for less than 5minutes.


im writting because I feel so agitated.
I feel some sort of grief and shock.
im like, it could be anybody and something could have gone wrong and I could have been dead and would never have been heard off.. so I am writting to atleast be heard. To have stated exactly as it happened.

it was horror.
You can never understand it if you werent in it.

what you see in the movies can never be compared to it. I was at a edge.
Jesus.... words cant describe.
A brother could have been no more.


I had to write this and put it out there for all you guys.
.
We must Rescue This country. Its in our hands.


https://www.omascope.com/crime/the-ever-notorious-kaduna-abuja-highway

Aww... you are still shocked.

naija police own naa to collect bribe.

ArcFresky:
Aww... you are still shocked.

naija police own naa to collect bribe.

if you have never faced it. You can never understand the trauma

I have a little few questions for you!

How did you know Hausa intonation to Fulani English speaking?

After you reach the Army check point did you report the incidence to them or you choose to keep quiet?

Sorry for the loss!

Well thank God for your life, this is an experience better watched with our nollywood, bless you Brother for the advise too

Dat road is hell... Someone who hasn't experienced it won't understand... It is clear d policemen on dat route are aiding dis Ppl one way or d other... These days dey even bring out vehicles jus like transporters and pick up passengers who dont know dey are actually being kidnapped

Pstacks you are indeed very lucky to be alive, and not either dead from a machete cut, or kidnapped as a source for spare parts.

The north of Nigeria is now a free-fire zone for criminals and terrorists to ply their deadly trade with absolute impunity.

Not for one million dollars cash, paid in advance, would I ever set foot in northern Nigeria, for the rest of all time.

I am glad that I did visit Yankari Game Reserve way back when that journey was NOT a suicide mission, and I am glad that I saw the majestic sweeping landscapes of the Jos Plateau, on the way due north, but now and forever more, such frivolous travel is a closed chapter in this writer's life, never, EVER, to be revisited.

PStacks:
if you have never faced it. You can never understand the trauma

Trust me bro, I understand what you're going thru.

November 2017, armed robbers attacked our Family home, I was beaten and even shot at.....the robbers were 5 in number...2 were caught...and guess who sent them to steal and kill

-- My mothers younger brother --

Life is so fragile, within a matter of minutes, all you've ever worked for can be taken away.....

I stopped trusting people since that experience.

Just thank God you made it out alive, and work hard in making your peace with God, because in these climes, nothing is really guaranteed.

Thank God for your Life.

tayebest:
I have a little few questions for you!

How did you know Hausa intonation to Fulani English speaking?

After you reach the Army check point did you report the incidence to them or you choose to keep quiet?

Sorry for the loss!

well. I have lived all my life in the North and I made mention I was coming from the North.
I have an ear for language..
I know when I hear hausa and I know how fulani sounds.
I have lived in midst and interacted with both Hausa and Fulani enough to being able to place them.

they had those matchetes and had short guns and barreled guns.

when we got to the army check point, I personally lodged the complaints with the men manning the Entry into Abuja. They said they had been briefed and already dispatched their hilux truck in that direction.


apparently, when our vehicle was being robed, other vehicles caught wind and refused advancing at us and some other vehicles made a one way following the other lane and we saw lights drove past us.

those vehicles I am sure would have been one to inform the army before we did. On my own getting there, I reported to the army and they attested they had been briefed and had swung to action and that was fair enough.

but issues concerning life shouldnt be Reactive, they should be proactive cos when a life is gone its gone.

dead men dont tell tales.