Freed Katsina Worshippers Recount Ordeal With Bandits

TrackNews Online had reported how bandits who came in their numbers, with AK 47 riffles, surrounded the worshippers at a newly constructed mosque on the outskirts of Jibia, Katsina State.

Narrating his ordeal, one of the victims who sustained an injury during the unfortunate incident, Malam Muhammad Bello, said the bandits came into the mosque around 1:30 am when they were observing midnight prayers.

“We were observing midnight prayers around 1:30 am when the bandits came into the mosque and asked us to move out.

“They collected phones and money from worshippers and then asked us to move outside where some of them were stationed.

“Majority of us ran away the moment we went out of the mosque, including me. But unfortunately for me, the place where I ran to, there was a bandit stationed there and the moment he saw me, he hit me on the head with a gun, but I did not stop, I continued running until I was confident that I was in a safe place,” he said.

He added that amongst those who were taken by the bandits, some escaped along the way because when one attempts to run, the bandits would not go after him.

Also narrating his ordeal, Mustapha who fractured his leg during the incident, said when the gunmen came, it was a young boy who first went into the mosque and asked the Imam to halt the prayers, but the Imam and other worshippers ignored him.

“Then a grown-up man came in and took down the microphone from the Imam and asked everybody to go out, after firing a shot. When we went out, a lot of us ran away, but unfortunately for me, my wife, who is a nursing mother, was held by a bandit while our 7-month-old baby was crying on her back. That was why I could not run away but decided to go along with them.

“On our way, I began to plead with them to release the nursing mother, but they refused to do so, and instead they asked if she was my wife, but I said no, I was just concerned about the baby.

“When I realized that they were not willing to release her, I told them that I could not walk anymore, so I pretended to collapse there. They insisted that I should get up and go along with them or else, they will shoot me, but I said they should go ahead and shoot me, which they actually did.

“When they fired the gun, I realized that most of their guns did not have live ammunition and so, I got up and began to run. One of them chased me but could not catch up. That was how I escaped, but hit my leg against an object in the process and had a small fracture,” he narrated.