Key points
- A protected witness told the Federal High Court in Abuja that victims of the May 15 Oriire school abduction were moved through six bush camps over 56 days, sharing one cup of dirty water among four and eating rice without salt.
- Five men accused by the DSS of belonging to the proscribed Ansaru group pleaded not guilty to seven terrorism counts, including the killing of two teachers; the court kept them in DSS custody.
- The witness said the abductors told captives they were held to force the release of detained Ansaru members, not for ransom; cross-examination was set for Friday.
A teacher abducted with her pupils from a school in Oyo State’s Oriire Local Government Area in May told the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday that the captives spent 56 days drinking water so dirty they closed their eyes to swallow it.
The witness, identified only as “AAA” under a court order protecting her identity, testified against five men the Department of State Services accuses of belonging to Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi-Biladis Sudan, the proscribed group known as Ansaru.
All five pleaded not guilty to seven counts under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
She said gunmen on about 12 motorcycles stormed three schools on May 15, firing into the air to stop anyone escaping.
Victims were loaded four to a motorcycle, and a teacher’s Toyota was commandeered to carry the rest. Children as young as 18 months were among them.
Six camps, one cup of water
Over the following eight weeks, the witness said, the group was marched barefoot through six locations in the bush, sleeping on grass through heavy rain and full sun. Nobody bathed or washed clothes for the entire period.
Water was rationed so tightly that four people sometimes shared a single cup. Food began as rice with salt and palm oil, then rice with palm oil once the salt ran out, then plain white rice. It was served, she said, “in a dirty rubber bucket like chicken.” Small children who struggled for food were flogged.
“We had to drink the dirty water just to survive,” she told the court.
The abductors told the captives early on that they were not being held for ransom. The aim, the witness said, was to force the government to release detained Ansaru members.
The kidnappers seized the victims’ phones and used them to call relatives and officials to press that demand.
Two teachers killed
When talks stalled, the witness said, two teachers, Deacon John Olaleye and Michael Oyedokun, were taken out on separate occasions and beheaded. The captors said the government was not taking their demands seriously.
The ordeal ended at the sixth camp when security forces engaged the kidnappers in a gun battle and freed the hostages.
Prosecutors led by Director of Public Prosecutions Rotimi Oyedepo allege that Mahmud Muhammad and Abubakar Abbas ordered three co-defendants, described as their foot soldiers, to kidnap and kill Nigerians if they were ever arrested, and that the plan led to the abduction of about 46 pupils and teachers from Community Grammar School, Baptist Nursery and Primary School and L.A. Primary School in Oriire. The other accused are Abdulrazak Umar, Yunusa Musa and Shamsu Adamu Sani.
Justice Salim Ibrahim granted the prosecution’s request for witnesses to testify in masks and ordered the defendants to remain in DSS custody. Defense counsel Bala Dakum did not object and was due to cross-examine the witness on Friday.