The Nigerian Army has been commended for facilitating the escape from kidnappers den of Dr. Habiba Abdulsalam-Suleiman, daughter of Deputy President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors Suleiman Uba Gaya.
Speaking to reporters yesterday in his Kano residence, Gaya gave a graphic detail of what happened:
“My daughter, who is a married woman, went to a neighborhood called Tukuntawa in Kano metropolis to plait her hair, after which she boarded a tricycle to her husband’s residence on Sultan Road, Nassarawa GRA. Strangely, however, the cyclist stopped over when flagged down by two other women, and he opted to go through a road passing by Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital.
“Right under the bridge popularly called Gadar Lado, a commercial bus, Sharon model, overtook and asked them to stop. They were then led to the bus by three hefty men. Obviously bewitched, they entered the bus which immediately headed towards Kaduna. None of them could talk even as the bus was racing to Kaduna.
“Because Habiba’s phone kept ringing, one of the abductors snatched it from her and threw the device out of the bus. On arrival at the outskirts of Kaduna, they were blindfolded and made to enter a dark tint vehicle, which eventually took them to their destination, a thick bush somewhere in Niger State.”
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Gaya, who disclosed that the abduction of his daughter happened between 5 and 6 p.m on Friday evening, described the incident as most ‘horrific and traumatic’ for him and the extended family.
He said they could not sleep properly, just as many of them were tramatized and lost appetite for foods.
He added that they got to know of Habiba’s kidnap when his younger brother called some few minutes past 5p.m to inform him that his daughter’s phone number was ringing but not being picked, after she had spoken to a close family member at about 4:49 p.m.
After Alhaji Abdulsalam, the husband, reported the matter to the police headquarters in Kano, the personnel informed all police divisions in the state and asked them to be on the lookout. Sadly, however, the police tracking devices were being maintained, for which reason there was nothing that could be done to trace Habiba’s whereabouts.
“It was owing to that, said Suleiman Gaya, “that I got in touch with General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff, who I begged to help get the Army track my daughter. And he was kind enough to oblige me.”
Continuing, Gaya said: “the Army was already closing on the kidnappers whereabouts, briefing me of every stage of their beautiful work, and even sending me graphics, when around 11a.m on Sunday, Habiba called me with a strange number, shedding tears and telling me her escape was facilitated by one of the kidnappers who escorted her to ease herself. The man then asked her, in the dead of the night around 5a.m, to leave and showed her a way out. She then trekked for almost three hours before reaching the Minna highway, from where a Good Samaritan gave her a lift in his car to the popular Dikko junction, from where she got the phone of a shop owner with which she called me.”
Asked whether he or the husband’s family had paid any ransom, Gaya said they did not pay a dime as Habiba couldn’t remember the phone number of anyone when asked by her abductors to give them the number of either her father or husband. They then realized their mistake of throwing away her phone, from which they could have retrieved the phone numbers they needed.
The NGE Deputy President attributed his daughter’s escape to intense prayer embarked upon by the family and well wishers, as well as the Nigerian Army which spared no effort in ensuring the young abductee was tracked.
