NIGERIAN priest Fr Bako Francis Awesuh remembers watching late-night television in mid-May when he heard gunshots outside.
Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need, Fr Awesuh said he turned off his TV and looked out the window to see five armed Fulani herdsmen.
Since 2016, thousands of people have been killed along the Middle Belt zone of Nigeria in clashes between predominantly Muslim Fulani herdsmen and Christian farmers over access to the land.
The herdsmen knocked on Fr Awesuh door.
“They kept on knocking, but, afraid, I refused to open the door,” Fr Awesuh said.
“They broke down the door and forced themselves inside.
“One of the men pushed me to the floor, tied me up and flogged me mercilessly, saying ka ki ka bude mana kofa da tsori (“you are getting tortured because you kept us standing outside for so long and refused to open the door when we were knocking”).
“They stripped me down to my shorts.”
Fr Awesuh and 10 of his parishioners were marched three-days into the forest.
It rained for much of the time and they only had mangos to eat, he said.
They eventually arrived at a small camp in the forest.
They were kept in a small hut for one month and five days.
They were not allowed to bathe and were not allowed outside the hut even to go to the toilet.
“We were tortured and threatened with death if a ransom of 50 million naira (about $120,000) was not paid,” Fr Awesuh said.
“A call was made to our families to pay the ransom in exchange for our lives.
“Our families pleaded and negotiated with our kidnappers, until they finally accepted the sum of 7 million naira ($17,000).
“Meanwhile some of my parishioners had tried to rescue us from the kidnappers.
“Three people lost their lives in the process – Jeremiah Madaki, Everest Yero, our parish secretary, and an elderly man.
“They had tracked us down.”
Fr Awesuh was deeply affected by the killings of three of his parishioners.
He said the only prayer he was able to say was, “Lord have mercy”.
“Finally, our families were able to pay the ransom, and, to the greater glory of God’s name, we were released and came out alive,” he said.
“I narrowly escaped death.
“I know of so many priests kidnapped before and after me who were killed even after a ransom was paid.”
Fr Awesuh has reached out for counselling after the ordeal to help him deal with the trauma of what he went through.
