Living with fear of kidnappers

…as killings frustrate vacation travel

TRACKING Many Nigerians, especially in the South-West and South-East are groaning as the fear of bandits’ attacks has truncated any idea of taking children to villages for the long vacation.

A former Commissioner for Information, Abia State, Eze Chikamnayo, who recently had an encounter along one of the routes alleged to be infested with bandits, took to his Facebook wall to narrate his experience last week.

He said: “The time was around 5.30p.m., as I drove from Isuochi to Enugu, the unthinkable happened. This was just before UNTH after Awgu junction. Suddenly, this hooded person jumped out of the bush in front of me and started shooting at my car. Before I could make anything out of it, another three appeared a bit in front and bullets started flying everywhere. I have been hearing about Fulani herdsmen, but what I saw yesterday is better imagined than experienced.

“The stories I have read on how these guys operate and the ever-abiding presence of Jehovah all worked in those few minutes. I was determined not to stop. My staff, Prince, who was on the passenger seat, literally passed out. As the bullets rained on my car, I kept speeding away. About one kilometre from there, just before UNTH and NNPC Mega Station was a military checkpoint. I heaved a sigh of relief and slowed down. I told the Army guys what was going on just behind their post. He (one of the soldiers) casually told me that they were aware, that the driver in front of me just told them. I asked him why he was still standing there without making any move to save the vehicles behind, and he just looked at me blankly and waved me on.

“By now, my entire dashboard was full of red lights. The temperature of my car hit the highest point on the meter. I slowly drove down to the front of NNPC opposite UNTH and pulled the car out of the road. It was then it dawned on me what happened. There were over 20 bullet holes in my front fender. Most of these bullets hit directly at my radiator and other things in front of the engine. The tyres which they were after didn’t get a scratch. There were also two bullet holes on the passenger side of the car, and a few others around the booth.”

A concerned father, Ikechi, whose wife and children braved the roads, from Lagos State to Imo State, disclosed that when his family got to Owerri about 10p.m., everywhere was almost like a ghost town.

He said: “They couldn’t get a bus or cab to take them to my village. They had to start frantically calling me. I advised them to spend the night in a hotel and head to my village in the morning. I was made to understand that due to herdsmen killings and fear, transporters now close on time. I grew up in that state and I can tell you for free that before, as late as midnight one could see get buses to anywhere.”

Schools’ long vacations are what most parents and children usually look forward to. Many prefer to send their children to their villages to spend the holiday there. But today, the fear that their buses could possibly be attacked by bandits operating in bushes along South-West and South-East routes has made many to jettison such plans.

A mother, Mrs. Omolara, said that she wanted her son to go to her village, which is in Ondo State, but has since trashed the idea. According to her, she doesn’t want either her or her son to become victims of herdsmen attack.

Another parent, Mr. Ade, also from Ondo State, said that he received a phone call that his mother was ill. He was supposed to go and check on her, but he was worried about the bandits on the highways.

“I decided that it was better and safer for me and everyone to send her money for treatment, than for me to travel,” he added.

A pastor in Lagos, Mr. Poju, said that the seriousness of the situation was sharply brought home after the relative of a church member died and nobody wanted to follow the member to her village for the burial.

He said: “Our church member relative died. The usual thing in our church is to go with such a person to her village for the burial. She hired two coaster buses, but only two members volunteered to go with her. The woman started crying. But the truth is that everyone is afraid of the bandits, who have taken over our roads.”

It was also along these routes that Mrs. Funke Olakunrin, the daughter of the leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Reuben Fasoranti, was killed. The 58-year-old woman was travelling from Akure to Ore when her vehicle was attacked by bandits.

The former Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan, underscored the dangerous trend of the bandits’ operation and how people have become imprisoned by fear.

Speaking on his Facebook wall on June 7, Bamigbetan revealed the panic which has taken control of his friends over accounts of bandits abducting travellers along the Ibadan-Ife route. He noted that the news has also travelled to Nigerians in the Diaspora.

According to him, when he called a source at the Governor’s Lodge in Oshogbo, the source told him that the bandits’ attack was one that the Osun State Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, was determined to unravel.

Bamigbetan wrote: “I called palace sources in Ife. They confirmed that the Fulani kidnap on the Ibadan-Ife route has continued, particularly between 6a.m. and 8a.m. and 5a.m. and 8p.m. A source said five police checkpoints and two patrol units have been deployed by the government and were working.

“I called a top friend of mine to advise. His analysis was intelligent. The Fulani invaders were not the nomadic herdsmen. They were those who settled in these areas in the last 10 years by buying farmlands to crop from hungry local chiefs. This explains their familiarity with the terrain. When they invite their brothers to come and work on the farms and those ones arrive and realise that Yoruba youths have fled the farms, they also decline farm work and resort to criminal options. Police and by extension, FRSC’s arrest of the Fulani kidnappers is not feasible because the kidnappers engage in random ambush of unsuspecting travellers and in three minutes, return to the bush…So the conclusion: keep away from Ibadan to Ife road in those unholy hours to be safe.”

Although there are speculations that some herders have taken over the highways on the instructions of the government to challenge the bandits’ attacks, their presence and news of their presence, has not abated the fears in the hearts of Nigerians.