Vanguard
By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja
Cases of kidnapping have become worrying in the North with bandits having a field day in Kaduna, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto and Zamfara States. It’s a story of divine providence for one of the kidnap victims, Abdullahi Abubakar Wali-Bukkuyum, a national youth leader, who spent about three weeks in the den of kidnappers after he was abducted in 2020 along Abuja – Kaduna Road
Wali-Bukkuyum, the President of Nigeria Youth Organisation, said although the kidnappers didn’t kill him, they tortured and beat him to a state of near unconsciousness many times for daring to preach repentance to them.
Reflecting on his experience, he told Saturday Vanguard: “Just after we successfully contributed our efforts to bringing an end to the #EndSARS protests in Abuja, I was on my way to Kaduna when I was kidnapped and kept for 18 days in the forest. Unfortunately for me, as my bag was being searched, the bandits saw my ID Cards as the President of Nigeria Youth Organization and the copies of letters we wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari seeking an audience with him on how we can be supported by his administration to sensitise the youths on insecurity. So, they separated me from other victims and demanded N100 million ransom for my release.
“In my wisdom, I tried to preach to them to drop their arms and turn a new leaf, but on a particular occasion, one of them picked a machete to slaughter me for daring to speak. It was by divine intervention which came my way through the bandits’ leader that I was not beheaded in the forest. I was beaten to stupor with thick sticks for trying to preach repentance to them in the forests. They paid little attention to my appeal, but kept on insisting that I must either produce the N100m ransom or die.”
