By Fayina Akilawus, a 30-year-old woman from Kaduna, has opened up about her terrifying four-year captivity in the hands of kidnappers, where she and seven other women were sexually abused, and the abductors planned to forcibly marry them.
Akilawus revealed her ordeal to LEADERSHIP, saying the nightmare began on October 19, 2020, when she boarded a 14-seater bus heading to Adamawa for her wedding preparations. The journey was violently cut short when about 10 armed bandits ambushed the vehicle, killing the driver and a passenger before forcing the rest into the forest.
The Adamawa-bound trip was meant to be a happy one, with her December wedding on the horizon. Instead, Akilawus found herself plunged into unimaginable horror, living in captivity for years.
“After a few months, I begged them to contact my family and ask for ransom,” Akilawus recounted. But the captors refused, keeping her and others isolated deep in the forest without any contact with the outside world.
Over the years, the women were subjected to repeated sexual abuse, with some of the bandits expressing plans to forcibly marry their captives, turning the forest camp into both a prison and a place of unthinkable trauma.
Now free, Akilawus is calling for stronger efforts to rescue those still held captive and to bring her abductors to justice, sharing her story as both a warning and a plea for action.
