After a long day of parish work on May 25, Father Stephen Ojapah was sound asleep when two guys brandishing weapons commanded him to get out of bed and accompany them.
Gidan Maikambo, a priest of the northern Nigerian Diocese of Sokoto in the Kafur County of Katsina State, has prayed for the clergy members who have been killed by terrorists as well as for those who have been abducted and tortured for years.
He was the one who needed prayers right now.
Along with Ojapah, 38, Father Oliver Oparah, his assistant, and Hassan Fareed Hassan, his sister and mother, they were abducted.
They had the unfortunate misfortune of spending the night at the rectory compound, which was supposed to be a secure place to stay while they were travelling for several days.
Ojapah, who spoke with CNA about his experience, was simply wearing a shirt and pyjama shorts since his captors didn’t allow him time to put on shoes. For 33 days, he didn’t change his clothing again.
Ojapah remarked, “For the first three hours, I was in shock and could not stand. They pummelling me and yelled obscenities at me, but I kept passing out. I begged the kidnappers to give me some of the pills they were taking out of terror, but the medications made me sleepy.
He discovered that his kidnapping was not an accident.
It was evident that they weren’t acting only for financial gain since “they understood precisely what they were doing,” according to Ojapah. The commander of the kidnappers claimed to have researched our position and timed their assault on our complex to coincide with most of us being sleeping.
Ojapah’s experience started with a six-hour march barefoot through the jungle.
When the celebration came to an end at dawn, Ojapah said, “Some of us had shoes, and they would share them with me for part of the march, but by then, my feet were sliced and bleeding.”
The first night, the kidnappers marched the group 15 kilometres in a southwesterly direction before stopping for the day on May 26 to rest under a shelter made of bushes.
On May 27, the party marched for 12 hours before riding motorcycles for three hours into a bandit stronghold close to the Kwiambana Game Reserve, which lies on the boundary of the states of Kaduna and Niger.
According to Ojapah, they rode bikes for roughly 30 kilometres and walked up to 45 miles together.
The route travels through a woodland savannah with a few tiny towns and villages inhabited by farmers and herders. Conflicting bands of militants and bandit gangs that support Boko Haram or a breakaway organisation known as Ansaru are in control of the area.
“Western learning is banned,” is the meaning of the word “boko haram.”
Kidnapping for ransom is used by bandit groups and insurgents alike as a consistent source of income.
Ojapah said, “We recited the rosary secretly throughout the march. Additionally, he recited verses from a psalm that he knew by heart:
Whoever lives under the protection of the Most High
shall sleep under the wing of the All-Powerful.
I will declare of the LORD, “He is my stronghold and my deliverer.
my God, in whom I put my faith.
No doubt, he will deliver you.
from the snare of the fowler
and from the terrible plague.
The speaker said, “The words relaxed us, making us feel like we were sheltered from harm.”
According to Open Doors UK, kidnapping gangs are increasingly targeting priests and other clergy, making Nigeria the most hazardous place in the world for Christians.
According to the nonprofit group working in human rights, as many as 16 Christians are murdered in Nigeria each day because of their religious beliefs.
At least four priests have been killed and 22 have been abducted in Nigeria so far this year. About 6,000 Christians were killed in 2021, mostly in the 12 states of the Middle Belt.
Only rice, beans, palm oil, and water were provided for the group Ojapah was a part of during their stay in the bandit camp in Birnin Gwari.
Other victims, including a Protestant pastor and three members of his congregation, joined the five captives, according to Ojapah.
Hours were passed in silence as the abductees listened to the sounds of the forest, which is home to monkeys, warthogs, wolves, a plethora of birds, scorpions, and deadly vipers.
The bandits moved to the cover of trees with thick foliage when the skies opened and it began to rain, but the abductees were chained to their hut, which continued to leak cold rain on them for hours, according to Ojapah.
They had to drink from any creek or puddle they could find as they made their way through the forest.
They shivered through low-sixties temperatures at night. He said, “We’ve all got colds.”
The bandit leader identified his organisation as Ansaru, which is the name of a jihadist organisation that broke off from Boko Haram in 2012.
Using Ojapah’s cellphone to get in touch with a priest in Sokoto, the robbers then settled down for a protracted wait until ransom could be paid.
Ojapah said that while the priests read Scripture and prayed quietly, the bandits spent their days using drugs and smoking marijuana.
The bandit commander questioned him, “Do you use weed?” and said, “I can’t even have breakfast without taking narcotics beforehand.”
“They’ll murder us,”
According to reports, the bandit bands target both Muslims and Christians, but Ojapah said the gang leader’s own remarks prove otherwise.
Alhaji Nura, a Muslim prisoner from Kano, was there with us. However, he was eventually released without being held to ransom, according to Ojapah, who thought the guy could have been a spy.
He claimed, “The bandits informed us that their religious objective is to destroy Christians. Residents just don’t want to return to a hamlet after it has been burnt down and attacked three times, and jihadist Muslims see this as God’s approval for their atrocities.
All but two of us were to return home after 30 days, according to our kidnappers, Ojapah added. “When they informed me that Hassan and I would be kept back, I felt my stomach drop. They’ll murder us, I reasoned.
Hassan predicted that they were for more cash. They were transported to Yakawada, a tiny rural village in Giwa County, some 35 kilometres from their rectory in Katsina, on their motorcycles after 33 days in captivity.
He said, “Our family members were waiting for us there.” Did a ransom get paid? Paying ransoms to bandits is illegal in Kaduna.
That day, the diocesan media director in Sokoto was quick to issue a joyful press release.
In a statement on June 27, Father Chris Omotosho, communications director for the Diocese of Sokoto, said, “With hearts full of joy, we announce that our brethren Fr. Stephen Ojapa, Fr. Oliver Okpara, Mr. Hassan Hassan, and Ms. Ummie Hassan, who were abducted by gunmen at midnight of May 25, 2022, in the rectory of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Gidan Maikambo, Kafur LGA of Kat
Ojapah considered his time spent in captivity with optimism.
Religious people claim that God’s ways are enigmatic. I didn’t think I could ever forgive my kidnappers, but after a few weeks, I did, and doing so deepened my love for Jesus, said Ojapah. God uses a crooked line to write on straight.