Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The nightmare began on the night of May 8, 2026, when armed men invaded Tsaragi in Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State. They had come for an engineer in the community. Mohammed Baba Salihu was not their target. But something happened in the chaos of that night, and before he understood what was going on, a person was already dead, and the gunmen had turned to him. He was taken into the bush, where he would spend the next 141 days in captivity, surviving two separate bandit camps, a failed ransom handover that ended in gunfire, and a nine-day walk through the forest without knowing which direction led home.
Salihu’s account, given in an exclusive interview with Kwara journalist Usman Haruna after his eventual escape, paints a picture of captivity that was defined as much by deprivation as it was by violence. The captives were sometimes left for four days without food. Water was not provided daily. The prolonged hunger and thirst left him severely weakened, his body losing significant weight and muscle mass. “Sometimes it was four days before food reached us,” he said. “Not just food, even water was never given daily.” In the camps, life was reduced to a brutal arithmetic of survival. When two men arrived at one of the camps in connection with a ransom payment of about N13 million intended to secure his release, the handover ended in gunfire. One of the men was shot. The other escaped into the bush. The wounded man was later brought back to the camp, and the kidnappers asked Salihu if he knew him. He confirmed that he did, and was subsequently allowed to help care for the injured man. “He was getting better. I could see it. He was becoming stronger,” Salihu recalled. But the two were later separated, and it was only after returning home that Salihu learned the wounded man had died in captivity.
His first escape did not bring freedom. After breaking away from one of the camps, he found himself deep in the bush with no knowledge of the terrain. “I did not know the road. I did not know which direction led home,” he said. “I walked for nine days.” For nine days, he wandered through the forest, uncertain whether he was moving closer to safety or deeper into the wilderness. Then he encountered another group of armed men. Instead of finding help, he was captured again and taken to another bandit camp. “I thought I had escaped,” he said. “Instead, I met another set of bandits who took me to another camp. The suffering continued.” The recapture extended his ordeal by weeks, and the conditions in the second camp were no better than the first. The captives remained hungry, weak, and at the mercy of their captors.
The ordeal finally ended on Saturday, September 26, 2026, when Salihu and eight other captives seized an opportunity to escape together. Two Fulani men among the captives could understand some of the conversations between the kidnappers and shared information with the others. When the group noticed that there was no supervision around them, they fled. The nine survivors made their way out of the bush and arrived at Lata Nna, where local residents received them before soldiers stationed in the area took over. “When we finally walked into Lata Nna, some of us could barely stand,” Salihu said. The military debriefed the survivors before they were reunited with their families. Salihu is currently receiving medical attention for the physical toll of more than four months in captivity, including severe dehydration and the effects of prolonged malnutrition.
The Tsaragi community has expressed profound gratitude to Dr. Kolo Baba Jiya, the Galadima Magani of Tsaragi and a former NNPP Kwara North Senatorial candidate, for paying Salihu’s medical bills and supporting him throughout his treatment. The gesture has been described as a lifeline for a man who returned home with nothing but the clothes on his back and the trauma of 141 days in the forest. For the community, Salihu’s escape is a source of relief, but it is also a reminder of the broader insecurity that has gripped Tsaragi and the wider Edu Local Government Area for years. Bandit attacks, kidnappings, and ransom demands have become a recurring feature of life in the region, and Salihu’s story is one of many that have ended in tragedy or prolonged captivity.
The Kwara State Police Command has been engaged in operations against kidnapping networks in the Tsaragi area, arresting suspects and recovering firearms in recent months. But the attacks have continued, and the return of Salihu and his fellow escapees has done little to address the underlying crisis. For the families of those still in captivity, the joy of Salihu’s reunion is tempered by the knowledge that their loved ones remain in the hands of the same criminal networks. Salihu’s 141-day ordeal is a story of survival against the odds, but it is also a story of a community living under siege. The question that hangs over Tsaragi is the same one that has been asked after every abduction and every escape: how long must the people of Edu Local Government Area wait before the government finds a way to protect them?
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