By SUNDAY ABBA, Abuja
Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, on Thursday in Abuja, presented Brig.-Gen. Maharazu Tsiga (retd.), Ambassador Gideon Yohanna, and 17 other rescued kidnap victims to be reunited with their families.
SUMMIT POST recalls that Tsiga, a former Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), was kidnapped on February 5, 2025, in his hometown of Tsiga, in Bakori local government area of Katsina State, alongside 9 others, while Ambassador Yohanna, a former Nigeria’s Deputy Chief of Mission to Pretoria, South Africa, was kidnapped in January in Zango Kataf local government area of Kaduna State.
Presenting the freed victims to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Christopher Musa for onward reunification with their families at the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), a unit under the Office of NSA, after a brief introductory remark from the National Coordinator of the centre, Maj-Gen. Adamu G. Laka, Ribadu said successful rescue of the victims was due to the efforts of the military and other security services, supported by Mr President.
The NSA said: “We have done a couple of handovers in the past as a result of the work of our armed forces, other security services, we are able to rescue and bring back.
“Now we have done it again. This time, it involves very powerful and important personalities who served this country and who did well for all of us. General Tsiga was in charge of our NYSC at a time, and he did a good job. Our Ambassador Yohanna is also here and a couple of others.
“Bad things do happen to good people too. That’s how life is. But evil will not prevail. It’s a matter of time. It’s a continuous process. A lot of effort is being made in the background, to rid the country of the bad ones and bring about lasting peace and security. We’re not there yet, but we’ll definitely get there.”
Narrating their harrowing experience in the den of the kidnappers, General Tsiga said they were fed once a day with ‘tuwo’ (swallow made from grains) by their abductors and that they were often beaten and used as human shield when military aircraft hovered above the bandits’ location, even as they cohabited with scorpions and snakes among other dangerous creatures.
He was released by his abductors on Tuesday evening after 56 days in captivity somewhere in Zamfara State.
He said, “I am hypertensive, and the only thing they could use was salt. Even if you are not a doctor, you know that there are foods people with hypertension should not eat. Now, look at me; I cannot climb these steps. It is all as a result of the salt and the beatings we endured.”
Continuing, the general revealed how God spared him from being eaten up by hyena, saying, “I think if there is anything to be celebrated, it is this kind of situation that is most important to be celebrated. A day before I left there, that is the day before yesterday, on the mountain I was staying, unexpectedly, we just looked around, what did we see? Hyena parading around us to get its own food. And which kind of food? We, the human beings.
“And one bad experience, particularly for those of us that they knew our ranks, whenever they were being attacked, sincerely speaking, they bring us out, so so that the aircraft can hit us. But you know God is merciful. The good ones will continue to live. Wallahi, there is end to the bad ones.”
He also recalled how a rocket fired to their location did not explode, only for their abductors to carry it to where he was sleeping and hid it there so that immediately he came in contact with it, it would explode, adding “and that is why I told us, God is merciful.”
He said the bandits when they came to his house told him people in government, particularly those in uniform, has money which they store in their houses.
“And that is why they tried to open my house, and when they could not open it, they had to use explosives to open my house,” he said.
Expressing gratitude to God Almighty, President Tinubu, the NSA, the CDS, and all the security services for the efforts that culminated in their rescue, General Tsiga noted that security is a collective responsibility, urging all Nigerians not to sit down and believe that the government can do it alone, but put their hands on the plough, by at least saying something when one sees something.