THE only way Amina Hassan Makuku could make sense of what happened on that day was to assume that the incident was an act of God as a Muslim faithful.
Amina, a 35-year-old mother of four and wife of the late Vice Principal killed by armed bandits who invaded Government Girls Comprehensive School, Maga, Kebbi State, where 25 schoolgirls were abducted in their hotel.
She had just settled on her bed to breastfeed her 11-month-old child when she sensed some movements toward her room.
At first, she mistook them for some goats who might have invaded their garden to feed on the plants. “I heard some movement from our Soya beans farm in the backyard. So, I woke up and told my husband that goats are destroying the plants on the farmland,” she told The Guardian.
But her intuition was far from that. A league of armed bandits had gained access into the building where her husband was staying together with her children. Before they could realise what was happening, some of the bandits found their way into the inner room, and forcefully opened their door.
“Three of them entered and asked my husband, “are you Malam Hassan?” and he responded, “Yes I am.”
They told him that we are here to kill you. He pleaded with them not to kill him while he was lying down. Later, he stood up to his feet and was reciting ‘Allah Akhbar’ before he was shot to death. He fell down before my feet. That was when I lost myself, “ Amina recounts with a sober reflection.
After killing her husband in her presence, they commanded her to follow them out of the house, but she declined. “I told them I will not leave the house unless they also kill me. They then turn to my eldest daughter to lead them to where the hostel building is located. That was how they left the house.”
According to her, witnessing her husband dying was a sad memory that will remain with her. “I still felt like a dream now but it was a reality dawn on me,” she said.
The late Vice Principal’s 15-year-old daughter, Khadija Hassan, who also witnessed the terror act said the assailants also demanded money. She told them the family was poor, and there is no savings at home.
“They later forced me to lead them to the hostel,” she said. “I took them to Aliero House. They asked the security guard to open the gate but he refused at first, later asking who they were. When he opened the gate, they shot him and took his phone.”
As the armed men rushed into the hostel to seize schoolgirls, Khadija quietly fled into the darkness. Her escape saved her from becoming one of the abducted students.
Khadija and her mother were not the only family grieving for their loved ones. The Guardian spoke with Aisha Sani, a mother of eight who has two of her children now in captivity.
She said the last time she saw her girls was a month ago before they resumed school.
“One of my daughters just resumed a few weeks ago to join the second one who had earlier gone to the hostel,” she recalled.
According to her, some sounds of gun shots were heard in the mid- night but were mistaken for that of the security operatives. “Just for us to wake up in the morning and learn that some armed bandits had invaded the school and went away with some students.”
Recounting the moment, she said; “that night, we heard gunshots around midnight, we assumed it was security operatives on routine patrol. It was until morning that we learned that bandits had invaded the school and taken away several students including my two daughters.
The mother of eight, who now counts two of her children among those abducted in the recent school attack, says she had been seeing troubling signs long before the tragedy struck.
“I kept having the same dream,” she recalled. “But I just pray over it and move on, I would wake up breathless. I never imagined it was a warning.”
Abdulkarim Abdullahi Maga, 52-yrs-old also shared a similar fate like Aisha. Two of his daughters were among the abductees.
“I have two daughters in captivity namely: Ummukhalsum Abdulkarim, 13-year-old, and Gawau Lawali, 12-year-old, both are in Junior Secondary School (JSS2).”
And it was double tragedy for him, because the second victim killed by the armed bandits was his father-in-law. “I felt bad that such an incident happened to my family. The mother of my kidnapped daughter also lost her father, who was the security guard killed by bandits. She has not been eating and is rapidly losing weight,” he explained further.
A resident, Danjuma Umar, told The Guardian that the community had received intelligence about suspicious movements some days before the attack and immediately alerted security operatives stationed in the area.
According to him, the attack was not an isolated incident. “This is not the first time Danko Wasagu has come under attack,” he said. “Some months ago, bandits raided Boge and carted away cattle. There was another attack in a community close to town, where they went away with residents’ livestock and now Maga.”
Umar said that the community had informed security personnel after noticing strange individuals entering the area earlier that day, but the warning was not acted upon.
“We notified the security operatives of the planned attack. Had they acted on the information we provided, this tragedy could have been avoided,” Umar alleges.
But a security personnel told The Guardian on condition of anonymity that the attackers had used deception to mislead security operatives shortly before invading Maga.
“They first approached the Wasagu axis to divert the attention of the security personnel. By the time the operatives realised it was a distraction, the bandits had already moved to Maga, where they carried out the attack and abducted the schoolgirls,” he said.
Another resident, Aliyu Maga, said since the day of the attack, schools operating within the surrounding communities have since shut down and parents panicking, unconvinced that there won’t be another soon.
“On the day of the attack, some parents slumped upon receiving the news that their daughters had been kidnapped. Currently, we are so terrified because this is our first experience of such an incident,” Aliyu said.
Shehu Magaji, a community leader hinted that the security operatives may be closing on the armed bandits as reliable information had confirmed the hideout of the abductors. “We were also told that another twenty people were also abducted from a near-by village. We are told that one person was able to escape from their hands but leaving his wife behind.
Corroborating, Muhammad Rafi, a public analyst said the security personnel have been present along Maga to Daki-Takwas since the incident happened.
“We are also told reliably that the military, along with local vigilante groups, has been deployed into the surrounding forests. However, there is no result from the search operation at the moment.
“To me, the efforts of the government are well acknowledged, but what we are looking forward to is the safe rescue of these students. Though, security guards have been mounted within strategic locations.”
He, however, lamented that the number of local vigilantes involved in the operation to help the military is not enough, because they know the terrain better than the military.
He charged the Federal Government to engage local residents living across the forests along the border of Zamfara and Kebbi, to help the military-led operations.
According to his claims; “we are told there are some cases where locals had sighted a group of girls with some armed men along Marina River, a border between Zamfara and Kebbi states.”
Since the incident, the community has remained at alert to avert future events while people in the community now avoid late hours’ activities as part of precautions with youths and local vigilantes are helping security personnel to maintain surveillance within the community.
The elder brother of the late Vice Principal, Muhammad Yakubu Makuku, lamented the sudden death of his late brother, saying the deceased was survived by nine children.
He, however called on the Federal Government to take measures that will strengthen security in the communities, as well as giving the children of the late brother free education and care assistance.
