Train attack: Terrorists proposed to marry different ladies in captivity – freed victim

Azurfa Lois John, one of the victims of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack who stayed in captivity for 191 days, says while being held hostage, a terrorist commander proposed to marry her. Malam Tukur Mamu, who negotiated with the terrorists and facilitated the release of some passengers, had raised the alarm that John was about being […]

Azurfa Lois John, one of the victims of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack who stayed in captivity for 191 days, says while being held hostage, a terrorist commander proposed to marry her.

Malam Tukur Mamu, who negotiated with the terrorists and facilitated the release of some passengers, had raised the alarm that John was about being married off.

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John, who was among the remaining 23 passengers to be freed last Wednesday, made the disclosure on her hospital bed.

She said she had forgiven the terrorists.

“Yes, it is true that one of the terrorists commanders picked and proposed to marry me but it just an offer and I rejected it. Once you reject them, they don’t force people. I was not the only one the terrorists offered to marry. They would just ask you, ‘I want to marry you, I want to keep you and I want you to change your religion and convert to my religion.’ So, it is left for you to either agree or reject,” she said when asked if the terrorists’ were planning to give her out in marriage to one of their commanders as reported.

She said that from day one of her captivity, she never knew that one day she would be free again.

“I was just praying waiting for the day I will leave the camp. The terrorists just came and asked us to start packing our things. I never knew I was going to come out,” she said.

On 28 March, 2022, terrorists planted explosives devices along the rail track and when the Abuja-Kaduna bound AK-9 passenger train approached the point, the device exploded, causing the train to derail, leading to the death of eight passengers

Out of the entire 65 hostages taken by the terrorists, the captives had been released in batches, until the last batch of 23 hostages.