Kaduna riot: I was attacked, abandoned for dead –Journalist

A journalist, Mrs. Temitope Mustapha, with the Voice of Nigeria (VON), has taken to her Facebook, to narrate how she was almost killed by some irate youths in Kaduna State.
The incident occurred during the violence that enveloped parts of Kaduna State. Although there have been a series of violence in Kaduna, the abduction and murder of a paramount ruler of the Adara people in Southern Kaduna, the Agwom Adara, Maiwada Raphael Galadima, caused anger and subsequently led to a violent protest. Mustapha was caught in the protest and almost murdered.
According to her, that she lives to tell the story was nothing but sheer miracle.
Mustapha, who is an Education correspondent with the Federal Government-owned media outfit, said she was caught up in the violence alongside her co-passengers in a bus heading to Kano for a media engagement on October 21, when all hell broke loose.
But while her fellow passengers, who were all males, managed to flee to safety, she was attacked by a mob of angry youths. They pursued and attacked her with stones, even as she fled, seeking safety. She fell into the gutter, where she was later rescued by a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force (Civilian JTF) and taken to hospital, where doctors battled to save her and later revived her.
She said: “I never thought passing through Kaduna State on Sunday 21st of October, 2018 to connect Kano State for a two-day Media Dialogue on Equity for the Girl Child Education could end up bloody for me. About 4.35p.m., two times this gentleman who was in the same car with me woke me up and said: ‘Madam stay awake.’ I replied him that I had written stories the previous night before I embarked on the journey. Again, this man woke me up and said ‘madam please stay awake’.”
When she finally opened her eyes, she saw military officers seated in their vehicles.
She said: “A fellow passenger said, ‘Madam we have been making calls to know the safest road’ and I said, you mean this road is safe for us all? They all answered yes.
“Suddenly at Kaduna By-Pass, I saw a trailer blocking the road and traffic was building up. Then the driver of the car I boarded beckoned on one of the youths holding an iron rod. Of course, he responded in Hausa Language and another passenger translated this to me that he wanted to find another route out of the By-Pass. Suddenly, a number of the young men sighted me in the car and my driver started pleading with them, telling them ‘Da Allah ki ya kuri’. I was the only female in the car and extremely unusual of me I wore a head-tie (turban).”
According to her, the young men were more than 15. They started hitting the side of the car. Mustapha’s fellow passengers took to their heels from the front door and the left rear door.
She added: “Then I summoned courage and opened the right side door which was already surrounded by men holding all irons and stones. My turban (head-tie) fell off as I started running towards an uncompleted building. Immediately I realised I could be finished off in the building, so with heavy stones landing on my back and long metallic objects hitting my body from behind, I turned and thought of crossing the gutter on Kaduna by-pass.
“I fell down heavily with stones landing on my body. I watched myself being lynched with all manners of iron rods and sticks and I was being stoned at the same time. Nobody dared stopped these youths from stoning me neither was I rescued from their hands. I actually saw one of them videoing what they were doing to me and I sincerely was running within me to catch up with my breath. Death is painful!”
She continued: “I suddenly didn’t feel the impact of the irons on my body again and the stones were no longer making sounds to me. I was hearing ‘Jesus is Lord’ inside my head clearly as if with a megaphone. I was seeing my mother, my son and my daughter’s faces all at the same time and somehow I kept hearing in my head that all they were doing was not up to the pains of labour.
“I crawled inside the gutter. Of course I was already almost inside the gutter by the by-pass before I fell. I felt peace in my body and I found solace inside the gutter. I saw these youths gathered on the other side and I faintly saw a crowd of men watching me. And I saw clearly one of them carrying a stone with his two hands right over me. I raised one hand pleading with him and making appealing gestures. That was the last thing I saw.”
Mustapha regained consciousness at AMRULLAH Hospital (also on Kaduna by-pass) on a stretcher.
She said: “I started telling them I am a journalist with VON and that I was only passing through Kaduna State to attend a Media Dialogue in Kano State. I attempted standing up from the stretcher but my body didn’t respond. I was asked for phone numbers. Heaven helped me to remember my younger sister’s number and the father of my children’s number.”

She stated that AMRULLAH Hospital came totally to her rescue. She was given six pints of drips and placed on different antibiotics. Head suturing was done by a young Muslim doctor who cried while carrying out the treatment.
“Hospital attendants were cleaning the stretcher stained with my blood. Everybody was put on guard. The miscreants traced me to the hospital and demanded that I should be released to them by the hospital to be killed. This Muslim hospital saved me. They hid me away from them. I was kept in a ward and locked in with a nurse who was given instructions not to open the ward for anyone whose voice she didn’t know. Only the hospital manager, the doctor on duty and two nurses were given access to where I was,” Mustapha further recalled.
She added: “On the second day, I asked the only face I saw when I woke up from a deep sleep: ‘I said please who brought me here?’ He looked at me with tears filling his eyes and said: ‘A JTF officer brought you lifeless. We rejected you because you were not breathing again and insisted he should not drop your body with us.’
“The AMRULLAH Hospital manager later said: ‘When we refused to take you, the JTF man dropped you on our stretcher and said you could come back that we should try reviving you.’
“AMRULLAH Hospital treated me and stabilised me. Then a thousand plus calls started coming through to the hospital. They said my family members were worried, while my colleagues had sleepless night.”