A senior reporter with Premium Times newspaper, Mohammed Babangida, has narrowly escaped from being kidnapped by terrorists who were operating along Yankara-Ruwan Godiya village on Sunday in Katsina State.
Penpushing reports that, Babangida was returning to Kastina metropolis from Yankara in his Peugeot 406, car which was hit by the terrorists’ bullets with the passenger’s side badly damaged, and side tyre burst.
The reporter who miraculously escaped while narrating his experience said one of the terrorists ran towards his vehicle and ordered him to stop, but he refused, adding that in the process he knocked him (terrorist) down.
“I was driving with another vehicle behind me when I suddenly ran into them (terrorists). They were six holding rifles. I didn’t notice what was really happening until I saw three or more people lying on the road with one of the terrorists pointing his rifle at them’, he recalled.
“I knocked him down. And I could see from the rear mirror when he fell down. As I tried to manoeuvre the steering, one of them started shooting at the tyre and the bonnet. There were other vehicles behind me but only one of them escaped with me’, Babangida said.
“One of the terrorists followed us on his motorcycle but because he was alone, he couldn’t aim and shoot. From the spot to Ruwan Godiya village was a journey of about six to seven kilometres’, the journalist stated.
‘But I told myself that if I stop, this guy will meet us. The vehicle behind me soon passed and the people in the vehicle motioned that I should keep going. When I reached Ruwan Godiya, the rim was already damaged. There were two bullet holes on it’, he added.
Penpushing also reports that Babangida explained that some residents of Ruwan Godiya village later helped him to fix the tyre and water radiator, before finally escaping from the route, adding that when he arrived at Ruwan Godiya, he alerted a group of soldiers stationed at a primary school in the community and they rushed to the place where the suspected terrorists were operating.
The terrorist as at the time the soldiers arrived the scene, were said to have dispersed, and on return to the community, one of the soldiers said the terrorists are always in a hurry to escape from scene of the crime
“They would not wait for over ten minutes. That’s why we keep missing them. Once they strike, they quickly flee to different directions and it’s hard to get to them,” the soldier was quoted saying.
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