‘How Kidnappers Took My Newborn Twins, Say They Belong to Them’ – Escaped Captive

Stories from the heart

A woman, Maimuna Gawu, from Gawu Babangida in Gurara Local Government Area of Niger State,  who was kidnapped by gunmen and gave birth to twins while in captivity, has narrated her ordeal.

Her abductors are, however, holding on to the newborn babies, saying the children belonged to them.

According to Maimuna, she was kidnapped after boarding a Sharon bus by the roadside at the gate of Suleja General Hospital in Niger State, where she had gone to see a doctor.

Narrating her ordeal on ‘Tsalle Daya,’ a Hausa programme on Prestige FM Minna, Maimuna said after she was examined at Suleja General Hospital, on last Thursday, she was told that her expected delivery date (EDD) was the following Friday, but while returning home, she unknowingly boarded a bus belonging to kidnappers.

“I left home for the hospital for antenatal care to check the health of my baby because I wasn’t feeling its movement, and my husband sent me money for transport,” she narrated.

“At the park, I boarded a vehicle that was going to Suleja and I alighted at the Suleja General Hospital. After seeing the doctor, he asked me to return to the hospital the following day for delivery

“I boarded a Sharon bus by the roadside and told the driver that I was going to Lambata. When we were approaching Lambata, I told the driver the point I was going to alight and he told me he had heard me. From that point, I lost consciousness; I didn’t know where I was again until around 1am when I woke up on a bed in an unknown home with a drip on me and later, I went into labour and delivered twins (boys) around 1am. When I woke up, I saw a young man and an elderly woman,” she narrated.

“I heard the babies crying but I dozed off again until Friday morning. When I woke up, I asked about the whereabouts of my babies, but another woman told me that they were not mine, saying that the babies belonged to them

“I started crying, begging them to give me my babies. They said they won’t give me because the babies belong to them. In the night when the day was dark, they removed the drip and told me that they had a meeting with their boss; it was at that point that I escaped from the place and found myself in Kagara, Rafi LGA,” she explained.