A survivor of bandits’ abduction, Zainab Salihu, has recounted her ordeal in captivity, as the emir of Minna, Alhaji Umar Farouq Bahago, sought the integration of the victims into society without stigmatisation.
They spoke at a one-day sensitisation workshop organised for gender-based violence (GBV) survivors by the Development Research and Projects Centre.
Zainab Salihu, in an interview with LEADERSHIP after the workshop, said the bandits came to their village in Shiroro local government area of Niger State during the Ramadan period, burnt houses, killed victims and abducted them.
She said they spent one year and some months in captivity, stressing that, “First, we were staying in the forest, later they took us to their houses, some of us work in their farms and do house chores for their wives as slaves, while others were forcefully married to them”.
Zainab said the experience was horrifying for them as they were like slaves during the period they stayed in captivity but relief came when they were moving them to another village and security agents rescued them at Menkujeri in Rafi local government area.
Asked whether there were any form of stigmatisation against them , given that some of them came back with children and pregnancy, she said, “For me no but for some of us, you cannot rule it out, some even suspect we may go back to them, but we are fully ready to reintegrate into a normal society.”
Meanwhile, the emir of Minna, Alhaji Umar Faruq Bahago, has urged communities in Niger State to reintegrate survivors of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) to psychologically, socially, and financially equip them to return to their families in view of the stigmatisation that would accompany such a form of GBV.
The emir emphasised the need for the government and community to collaborate and end the menace of banditry, which has affected four local government areas of Shiroro, Paikoro, Munya, and Bosso in his emirate council.
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