It was a black day for the newly married couple, Auwal and Rabi’atu, when recently armed men stormed their home in Jere town, a town along the Abuja-Kaduna highway in Kaduna state and unleashed a deadly attack, kidnapping the wife and shooting the husband multiple times to death.
On that faithful day, Auwal was said to have took his bride, Rabi’atu to a maternity ward at Masukwani quarters as early as possible for pregnancy related problems. Later in the day after the Isha’i prayers his brother, Rabi’u visited him along with his wife, A’isha. They took-off time discussing about life, until when Rabi’u sought to go back home with his wife.
“No sooner had they left, Auwal was lying on a mat in a sitting room, while his new bride was sitting beside him, when all of a sudden, a group of kidnappers with guns barricaded their house. The entrance gate was open as it wasn’t late into the night, so the gunmen didn’t have any difficulty getting in.
They gave the couple a marching order to follow them, but Auwal ignored them. When the gunmen warned that they would be carrying along Auwal and his wife, again Auwal said they were not going anywhere. Auwal stood up to block the entrance to the main room, but unfortunately, they shot his hand.
“Auwal’s hand was badly hit with almost all its bones broken into pieces. The gang attempted to take away Auwal’s wife, but he resisted, saying they were going nowhere. They again shot him in the stomach thrice, and he instantly fell down in a pool of blood. Thereafter they took away his wife. Auwal’s brother, Barde was inside his room during the incident, but could not come out, so it was only after the gunmen left that Barde was able to come out, and shouted that, they have killed Danlami (Auwal).
“It was then that Barde got attention of family members. However, despite the pain he found himself in, Auwal was shouting for help, saying “pick me up, they also took away my wife, and kept on repeating that until the time he could not even utter a word”.
This was the scenario related by a close relation about the killing by gunmen of the newlywed Auwal Isah, in addition to his kidnapping his pregnant wife.
This was said to be the third time gunmen were invading Jere town, kidnapping people. The first was at Cabiho quarters where a young person was kidnapped with the sum of twenty million naira paid as ransom.
The second was at Ma’aji quarters where over seven persons were kidnapped and a ransom of twenty-five million naira, including three motorcycles were paid for their release, after the bandits have killed two out of the seven they kidnapped while they were held hostage.
To sum it up, it was not more than a month after the release of the five out of the seven they kidnapped when they came back again, penetrating deep inside the town at Galadanchi quarters where they killed the newlywed groom, and took away his bride.
In addition, they kidnapped some women and children in the house of Kaduna State former commissioner for poverty alleviation, who was also the PDP chairman of Kagarko Local Government, Hon. Abdulrahman Ibrahim, popularly known as ‘Apo’.
It was reported that “The kidnappers were said to have entered the house of Hon. Abdulrahman in the early hours of the night of the incident, just around 11pm. As God would have it, all his wives had shut their rooms except Hajiya Ladidi who had women visitors that where to spend the night with her in the same room.
There were boys watching some video clips in her room, but when the gunmen came in, the occupants of the room were lucky to use the kitchen exit to vamoose. So, they only took Hajiya Ladidi away along with her baby, in addition to the junior sister of Abdulrahman, Rabi’atu who also came to the house from Zaria, together with Hajiya Ladidi’s sister, Walidah”.
Further more, we learned that the gunmen attempted to enter the House of Lere traditional ruler, Yeriman Lere, Alhaji Abdulkarim, but were not able to break the gate of the house.
In the same vein, another source told us that the gunmen bolted into the Jere town through the Sabon Kasuwa market, where they went away with one tea seller, Malam Yakubu and another person who was there to buy the tea by name Baba Isah, together with vibrant young person named Mubarak.
Narrating his ordeal, Malam Mubarak said, “I was on my way back from our main house, just beside a long wall while lightening my handset touch light close to the house of one Alhaji Abba, when suddenly I heard a voice saying come here, no sooner had they catch hold of my gown and made me to sit down, along with one Yakubu who was already in their hands.
Not long after, I was able to grasped out of their hands, leaving them with the gown and being taken away. One of the gunmen, he nattared, was the giant among them, followed me on the run, but fortunately for me, his gun magazine fell down, and luckily, I entered a nearby house in which I met some young guys, telling them to run for their dear lives, having been confronted by kidnappers.
The guys immediately shut the main gate of the house and ran inside. In front of the house, one of the gunmen opened fire into the sky then left, and it was there that I was able to come out from the house and run home”.
It was revealed that the leader at the Jere Area Police Command, ACP Umar Faruk has sought the assistance of soldiers who keep vigil of the area, though the soldiers fell short of expectation because they only fired in the air after the gunmen had left.
Also giving us a rundown of the ugly scenario, a trader in Jere market by name Malam Muntari said, “One of those kidnapped, Malam Yakubu said the soldiers went to a close by railline in an attempt to get hold of the gunmen, but to no avail, instead they only fired into the thin air. At a point, the gunmen ordered all of us the captives to lie down, and later changed the route to their den.
Also, another rescued captive narrated that another female who was held captive with the gunmen had her legs bleeding, and he had to take-off his shirt for the woman to tie the bleeding legs. He explained that ever since they were kidnapped, the gunmen gave him the custody of a breastfeeding child whom he became accustomed to.They were in a resting place with the head of the gunmen, when he escaped.
Efforts to get the police side of the story could not yield any positive response, as the Lere Area Commander of the Force, ACP Umar Faruk referred us to the command’s PPRO by giving us his GSM number, though his number was not reachable when we called, and he did not respond to our text message.
In the same vein our correspondent in Kaduna, Shehu Yahaya has reached the PPRO, but he however said to be in a meeting with a promise to ring back later, which he still didn’t, up to the time of filing this report.
Other police source however confirmed the arrest of some suspects that included, Laurat Abdulrahman, Safiyah Abdulrahman, Rabi’at Ibrahim, Rabi’at Abubakar Zakariyya (bride of the slain groom), as well as Walidah Surajo Musa, all women and children.
Responding at the funeral prayer of Auwal Isah, some of the teachers in Jere, Imam Abdulrahman Musa, Imam Ibrahim Tahir and Malam Ibrahim Zakari, encouraged people of the town to be up and doing in nipping into the mud by the insecurity problem bedeviling the town, saying people should be very vigilant, especially with unknown faces in their midst. Parents should also imbibe moral upbringing to the youths, as well as to continue praying, and asking Allah to bring to the end of such misfortunes.
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