Bauchi girl kidnap, Day 10: ‘I watched helplessly as kidnappers snatched my 11-year-old daughter’; Students pray for her safe return

The man, accompanied by other gunmen, stormed the Al-Mustapha residence at 7:30am attempting to abduct a boy, who fled. They later abducted his younger sister after missing the male child.   Narrating the incident to newsmen, mother of the abducted girl, Hajiya Sadiyya Al-Mustapha Ahmed said: “I came out in my car on my way […]

The man, accompanied by other gunmen, stormed the Al-Mustapha residence at 7:30am attempting to abduct a boy, who fled. They later abducted his younger sister after missing the male child.

 

Narrating the incident to newsmen, mother of the abducted girl, Hajiya Sadiyya Al-Mustapha Ahmed said: “I came out in my car on my way to take my children to school early morning. I saw one man wearing a jacket with a gun in his hand and he asked me to stop. I quickly surrendered, handing over the car keys to him because I thought he was an armed robber. I handed over the key to him but he refused to collect, then another man came from the other door and opened the front door of the car he asked my son to come out and lie down. The boy refused and he was trying to resist. I ordered the boy to lie down, but he had run back to the house.”

Sadiyya, in tears, said: “I saw the man open the back door of the car, and pick my 11-year-old daughter. When he picked her from the car he took her straight to a nearby motorcycle, put her on, and rode away after firing three shots in the air. I thought the kidnappers had gone with both my kids till I got home.”

Sadiyya said the abductors did not demand for anything but they collected her phone and promised to call her husband but they have not called for ten days now.

The Bauchi State Police Command explained that they have intensified search for the young girl. Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Barau, told Weekly Trust in Bauchi that they are doing a thorough investigation. “We are making progress, but we don’t want to make our findings known to the public in order not to jeopardize our investigations.”

But a relative of the abducted girl told Weekly Trust that they have started losing confidence because since the girl was kidnapped, they have not heard anything positive from the authorities concerned or from the kidnappers.

Students and staff of the school attended by the kidnapped girl, Jamila, International Secondary School, yesterday organized special inter-faith prayers of intervention on her behalf, praying God to touch the hearts of her captors to release her. The special prayer sessions were held at the assembly ground of the school under the direction of the Principal, Mallam Madaki who said that the essence of the prayers was to seek for the divine intervention of the situation so that very soon the little girl will be released and reunited with her parents and friends. Madaki added that: “We pray and hope that God will set her free.”

Amir of the Muslim students, Hassan Maidorowa, who led the Islamic prayers for Jamila, who is a JSS 1 student of the school, called on Allah to keep her safe. In his own prayers, student pastor of the school, Wale Adewusi prayed to God to set her free.