Alhaji Mustapha Oyeyinka decided to visit Nigeria
with his family all the way from Spain so that his children would be conversant
with their roots. Unfortunately for him, it is a decision he has come to
regret. He is now blind and has been left
traumatized after seeing his wife continually raped by the insurgents during
the 3 months they spent in captivity. According to him, the trouble started
when he was on a journey to Kaduna.
He told The Sun:
“I do not know the village, but I know that it’s Kaduna
because there was a billboard that had the address on it. We ran into a little
traffic jam caused by some men who were in military uniform. They were stopping
vehicles and searching them. When it got to our turn, they asked us to get
down. The driver asked us to relax, as it was a routine. Suddenly, there were gunshots;
people started lying down on the floor while some were shouting Jesus! Jesus!
In a split of seconds, they shot all those who they heard shouting Jesus.
They
drove into the bush and at a point stopped and blindfolded everyone. Everyone
was silent, except for the loud voice of our captors who kept speaking Arabic
language. After driving about 50 kilometres, they stopped and asked us to get
down from the truck. Our blindfolds were removed”.
“We found ourselves in a camp built with mini halls which later
turned out to be our detention room. There were so many young men. It was then
that they told us in Hausa that they are Boko Haram members. They collected our
phones, and asked us to strip down including the women. They asked if there is anyone
related to the president or any influential Nigerian. Those who said yes were
immediately slaughtered and their bodies taken away. Those who claimed that
they were Christians were also killed if they failed to renounce their
religion. I told them that I am a practicing Muslim and they asked me if I was
ready to kill for Allah. I kept quiet and the leader of the group said that
with time I would beg to join them. It was then that I said never
and one of them hit me on the head with his gun. I fainted and woke up later in
an open hall with my hand and feet tied up. We were kept in that room without
food until the next day when they came and took all the women out including my
wife. They returned them two hours later. It was then my wife told me
that they were raped by more than five men each. It was terrible, I couldn’t
help my wife but I was consoled that she was still alive. Every day, they will
come and carry all the women out to be raped and those who did not come back
were slaughtered because they resisted. It was terrible knowing that every day
different kind of men will forcefully have sex with your wife and you cannot do
anything about it. Then I had completely lost my sight. The after effect of that gun
on my head was blindness. I was lucky that my wife was with me to attend to me
if need be. On May 8, 2011, the camp remained deserted because they had gone
out to hunt. One of the guards came to our cell and picked the prettiest woman
among the women. For fear that his people might see him; he shifted her to the
end of the hall and had sex with her there. She was just screaming. While he
was at it, we heard the sound of the truck, and he quickly ran out of the hall
and forgot to lock the cell. They all jumped into the truck and drove off.
“We waited till everywhere was really quiet and took off into the
bush. My wife was there to assist me since I could no longer see. We only left
a young girl who was too weak behind. She was young and beautiful, so sometime
they will come for her more than once in a day. It was a survival of the
fittest, so we left her behind. We got to a point and a Fulani woman who was fetching firewood
asked us to follow her. She took us to their village head where we were given
food and clothes. He also made an arrangement for a vehicle to take us to
Kaduna town. We took the next bus down to Lagos.”
Since his horrible ordeal, Alhaji Oyeyinka has been
on a journey to reclaim his sight, but to no avail. However, he has finally
made plans to go back to his base in Europe where he believes his sight will be
restored.
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