Gunmen Attack – Osebhahimeh Break silence, Gives account of gunmen terrifying event

Osebhahiemeh Ohue (30) who happens to be a farmer was taken, along with more than 280 others including students of a school in Kuriga, northern Nigeria

Revealing to newsmen ,Osebhahiemeh recount on how he and two others had to slither on the ground like a snake to avoid being detected by the kidnappers as he made his escape through the bush of northern Nigeria.

Osebhahiemeh further started that he managed to hide in a heap of cut grass as the group of schoolchildren he was abducted with were taking a break from their forced trek.

More than 280 of them were snatched last week from a school in the town of Kuriga, in Kaduna state, traumatising a community according to
Osebhahiemeh

“We saw motorbikes on the road. We thought they were soldiers, before we realised they had occupied the school premises and started shooting,” Osebhahiemeh narrates his ordeal about the Thursday morning’s terrifying events.

“We tried to run away, but they chased us and caught us. They gathered us like cows into the bush.”

These armed men on motorbikes – referred to locally as bandits – had been menacing the community for some time, with the security forces apparently unable to deal with the threat. Kuriga had been persistently attacked by gangs seeking to kidnap people and make money from ransom payments.

The scale of this latest abduction and the fact that it involved children as young as seven has been overwhelming for many here.

“We watched them carrying our children away just right here and there’s nothing we could do. We don’t have military, we don’t have police in the community,” his wife who has refused to disclose her name speaks”

Osebhahiemeh was one of those taken away.

“While we were moving in the bush, at some points, we were all thirsty, but there was no water. Some girls and boys were just falling as we moved because they were all tired,” he says.

“The bandits had to carry some of them on the bike.”

At one point, deep into the bush, they were able to quench their thirst at a river which came as a big relief for the children who had not had breakfast and had been forced to walk for several hours under the hot sun.

Osebhahiemeh kept looking for ways to escape and tried to encourage others to join him but they were too afraid.

He saw his chance as the sun was setting. Looking around to ensure he was not being monitored, he hid in one of the heaps of grass and lay still.

“After all was quiet, [to avoid detection] I started dragging myself like a snake on the ground.” Once it was totally dark, he couldn’t get up and walk off our of fear until the next day.

He took a huge risk that could have led to him being killed at the slightest mistake, but some are saying that God protected him.

When he appeared the next day in Kuriga, friends and family were jubilant, but he came with harrowing tales of the children still in captivity.

In the last decade and a half, people in northern Nigeria have come under intense attack by armed militant groups.

At first, this mainly happened in the north-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, where the Islamist group, known as Boko Haram (meaning “Western education is forbidden”) is active.

A second force, linked to the Islamic State group, has also emerged.

Both sets of jihadist groups were involved in kidnapping, targeting Christians, farmers, travellers and even razing villages to the ground.

Schools, seen as the home of Western education, became a target. The notorious attack on the girls’ school in Chibok 10 years ago set a template.

“There has been an escalation in attacks on schools in northern Nigeria. Primary schools, secondary schools and universities have come under attack,” says Shehu Sani, a former senator for Kaduna state. He argues that the aim is to discourage parents from sending their children to school.

“At the same time, when they attack and kidnap, they do it with the intension of raising funds – to buy more arms and also to continue their criminal activities.”

But their methods have spread across the north with the criminal gangs known as bandits adopting the same approach, as they have seen that kidnapping schoolchildren often attracts attention, and therefore ransoms.