A Narrow Escape from Dogo Gide’s Camp

A serious rift between the infamous terrorist kingpin, Dogo Gide, and one of his fighters, Dikki, has enabled the narrow escape of Louis, one of the terrorists’ captives. The victim reached home on Tuesday, Dec. 20.

Gide is the terrorist who abducted more than 100 school children from the Federal Government College (FGC) Birnin Yauri, Northwest Nigeria, in June 2021.

Although by Jan.  2022, most of the school children had regained freedom, 11 of them remain in captivity. 

In November, two new captives were brought to Gide’s camp. The young girls, Abigail and Louis, were kidnapped from Ungwan Turawa community in Kajuru local government, Kaduna State. 

The girls said they spent over five months in a different terrorist camp before they were transferred in November to the forest where the 11 Yauri schoolgirls were being held. The two girls, just like the Yauri girls, were forcibly “married” to some of the terrorists.

HumAngle understands that the spokesperson of the parents of the 11 Yauri schoolgirls, Salim Kaoje, had phone conversations with Abigail. These conversations gave him the necessary information to track Aminu, Abigail’s father. 

Kidnap

On Sunday, June 19, terrorists stormed Kufana District of Kajuru local government and attacked worshippers and locals at Ungwan Fada, Ungwan Turawa, Ungwan Makama, and Roboh.

According to a media report, three locals were killed across the raided communities. Also, two persons were injured, and an unspecified number of people were abducted. The terrorists equally looted shops and stole some valuables from the villages.

According to Abigail’s father, Aminu, 17 people were abducted from his village, Ungwan Turawa. When the terrorists opened up for negotiations, it was agreed that relatives of all the 17 abductees would collectively pay a ransom of 4 million Naira (about $9,000) and two motorbikes to secure the release of their loved ones.

After the payment of the ransom, however, the terrorists breached the agreement and released only 15 of the abductees. They held back Abigail and Louis.

From then, Aminu said, they had not heard anything about the whereabouts of their children until when he was contacted by Salim on Nov. 30. 

“We simply surrendered everything to God. But we were not sure whether they [Abigail and Louis] had been killed or they were alive.” Aminu confessed that he was both happy and surprised when he heard about their children from Salim.

After he got Aminu’s phone number, Salim sent it to the two girls so they could break the prolonged silence between them and their parents. 

Rift

With Salim’s assistance, Louis and Abigail reconnected with their parents over the phone. The parents conveyed to the terrorists through their children that they were ready to offer 1 million Naira as ransom for their release. Gide declined the offer, saying he didn’t want the parents’ money.

“I passed on the message to the person I was ‘married’ to. He said I should not disturb him. I said to him: ‘since I am under your care, I cannot tell anyone this except you’,” Louis recalled.

After persuasion, the terrorist she was staying with, Dikki, approached Gide with the same information. This time, not only did Gide reject the offer, he suspected Dikki of collaborating with the girls and their parents, Louis said.

Gide became angry and deranged; he held Dikki for almost five hours – 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. – interrogating him. Around 7:00 p.m., Louis said, Dikki managed to escape.

Allegations against Dikki became renewed when Gide claimed to have had a dream the following morning.

In an exclusive phone interview with one of the girls in captivity, HumAngle learnt that Gide usually claims that whatever other people are plotting against him is revealed to him in his dreams.

The whole rift with Dikki culminated in the man being shot in the arm by one of Gide’s boys and Dikki fleeing the forest, leaving Louis alone.

Regaining freedom

According to Louis, Dogo has a mental illness that manifests in his fetish tendencies. “His boys are now struggling with him,” she said. “They have stopped all the schoolgirls from making phone calls.”

Louis believes Gide was deranged when he set her free because he later changed his mind and asked one of his boys to go to Doka and get her back.

At Doka, she spoke to Dikki over the phone, and he told her where he was. He asked her to meet him there at a certain time. 

The next day, he gave her money and directed her to take a commercial vehicle and go home. She arrived home on Tuesday, Dec. 20, around 6:00 pm. This was six months after her abduction. 

For the remaining captives, including the 11 Yauri Schoolgirls, Louis said that Gide vowed that he would not release them until the government paid the amount he requested: 100 million Naira. According to Louis, Gide is standing his ground despite his mother’s prolonged stay in the camp, pleading that he releases the schoolgirls.