After Freeing His Mother From Terrorists’ Den in Zamfara, He Killed Two of Her Captors

Left with no other choice, Usman Jabbi, a local man in Zamfara state, said he hacked to death two terrorists who abducted his mother and kept her captive for 63 days. The incident happened on Nov. 13, around 4:00 p.m., in a satellite community in North West Nigeria. 

Usman had travelled miles away from his hometown in the Bukkuyum local government to Yarmatankari village in the Anka area of the state to free his mother, Lauratu Maigeme.

Terrorists had invaded the family’s house on Sept. 10 through the makeshift fence in Bukuyum. While Lauratu successfully hid her aged husband in the backyard, she could not escape abduction from them.

After a series of negotiations over the next two months, her son, Usman, delivered a sum of ₦2 million ($1,575) and ₦50,000 worth of phone airtime to the terrorist group in exchange for her freedom. 

But they wanted more than just the ransom: They were going to abduct Usman after freeing his mother to expand their negotiation net. 

“I left my hometown and dropped off at Yarmatankari [a location that has become a ransom-exchange spot] and delivered the agreed payment of ₦2 million in exchange for my mother’s release,” Usman told HumAngle.

The three armed criminals rode on two separate motorcycles, he added. One of them collected and counted the cash brought for Lauratu’s freedom. The pale-looking woman had been through hell in a deplorable situation. Usman said he wept bitterly when he saw his weak mother, who appeared sick and depressed. “She was dehydrated and could not even stand upright as the armed gang handed her over to me,”  he recalled.

He arranged with a local motorcyclist from Yarmatankari to convey him and his mother home, hoping to celebrate her long-awaited freedom from captivity. But the gang instructed him to get on their own motorcycle instead. 

“They asked me to go with them to their camp to see if I could meet any of the abductees from my community to go along with me,” Usman said. He would later realise it was a plot to hold him captive.

“I did not have to argue with them as they held guns after a successful receipt of my mother’s ransom. I reluctantly followed them and sat between them on the same bike, driving through a river bank on the outskirts of Yarmatankari,” he continued.

“We crossed over the riverside and delved into the forest. That was when I realised that I had also been kidnapped. I was holding a sharp, long knife hidden in my waist and readjusted my sitting position at some point, pretending to sit tight.

“I immediately removed the knife, plugged it into the rider’s stomach and dragged it down to his pelvic position near his penis. We all fell, and I quickly stuck the knife into the other man’s chest, who fell down dead. I took two of their guns away from them and threw them into the water at the swampy riverside.”

When he returned to the Yarmatankari village, where he had left his mother waiting for him, he did not disclose what transpired between him and the two armed men. He urged her and the motorcyclist to run to a safer place. 

While combing the forest, four armed terrorists found the lifeless bodies of the two other men, brutally slain and left in the bush. They hastened to Yarmatankari village to find out who had killed their gang members. 

Some villagers familiar with the activities of the terrorists told HumAngle that the men, working for the Jijji Dan-Auta’s camp, had gone to deposit the ransom cash they had squeezed from Usman with a Point of Sales (POS) agent in the village. They came back to find that they had lost two of their members to Usman.

The enraged terrorists combed the forest routes in a desperate search to intercept Usman and his mother, but they were too late. “The armed gang angrily returned to the Yarmatankari village unsuccessfully and began to fight one another on the shared blame for conspiracy against each other,” said villagers who witnessed the incident. 

Sources say the argument led to a gunfight among the terrorists, with three killed and two others injured.

Dozens of terror groups have operated in many parts of northwestern Nigeria for so long that they have become associates by force in communities like Birnin-Magaji, Anka, Maradun, Tsafe, and Zurmi in Zamfara. The relationship is conditional, giving the criminals undue access to communities; they also patronise civilian markets and go about their daily businesses. The residents are allowed to visit their farms and stay in peace, for associating with the terrorists and paying forced taxes to them.

However, other communities suffer frequent attacks for refusing to work with the terrorists or negotiate with them. Usman’s community, for instance, has failed to sign a peace pact with terrorists, causing them consistent attacks. For refusing to dance to their tune, they kidnap members of the community for ransom.