I will never forgive Nigerian govt – Man says after meeting bandit who abducted him now ‘repentant’ in Kaduna mosque

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Bala Mohammed, a survivor of the 2022 Abuja-Kaduna train attack, claims he has forgiven his kidnappers, but not the Nigerian government, three years after surviving a terrifying 197 days in captivity.

Mohammed had a bizarre encounter with one of his former captors during Friday prayers at a mosque in the Bairua neighborhood of Kaduna city in an interview with Trust TV.

“Surely, I met one Abubakar who happened to be our guard when we were held at Shema filling station in Bakinruwa. After prayer, I turned and saw a face I recognised. He just laughed at me, and we shook hands. Then he panicked and began to tremble,” Mohammed narrated.

Mohammed and Abubakar, the repentant bandit, had an hour-long talk after their accidental encounter, during which he admitted to abandoning armed robbery and accepting the Kaduna State government’s offer of rehabilitation for remorseful criminals.

“We found a place to sit down and talked a lot. I even asked about some of his colleagues, like Baba Adamu. He told me the Nigerian Army had killed Baba Adamu, who was one of the most notorious among them. I was happy to hear that,” said Mohammed.

Mohammed claimed that despite the meeting’s emotional toll, he gave Abubakar a modest amount of money and left him amicably.

To make ends meet, he now rides an okada, or motorbike taxi. He remarked, “He looked so poor—his face, his shoes, everything about him was pathetic.” Mohammed claims that his faith enables him to forgive his captors, but his resentment of the Nigerian government has not lessened.

“I won’t forgive the government, I left my wife with a four-month pregnancy. People gathered money for her, yet the government didn’t even call her, not to talk of helping.”

Mohammed stated that while he was still in prison, his wife had to have a cesarean section to give birth, but not a “single kobo” was offered by the government. “Even after our release, many of us had to go to the neuropsychiatric hospital for treatment. We’re still dealing with trauma, and the government never supported us,” he added.

Years after the incident, Mohammed continues to experience the psychological scar of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“Three people were killed right beside me that day. But I survived, and I thank Almighty Allah. That’s why I forgive the bandits. But the government? Never.”

The nation was startled by the March 28, 2022, train attack between Abuja and Kaduna, which resulted in the deaths of at least eight persons and the kidnapping of dozens more. Survivors like Mohammed continue to cope with the emotional, physical, and financial effects, sometimes without institutional help.

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