Back From the Dead: Journalist Narrates How She Cheated Death During Kaduna Violence

Malik Yahya/

A journalist with the Voice of Nigeria, Mrs Temitope Mustapha, has narrated how she miraculously survived after she was lynched and left for dead by a mob during last month’s violence that engulfed parts of Kaduna State.

Mustapha who is an Education correspondent with the Federal Government’s owned media outfit narrated her near death ordeal in a Facebook post she titled: ‘My Experience in Kaduna Crisis’.

She said she was caught up in the violence alongside her co-passengers in a commuter vehicle on her way to Kano for a media engagement on October 21.

But while her fellow passengers, who were male, managed to flee to safety, she was attacked by a mob with various objects, including stones and iron rods, until she collapsed inside a gutter and was left for dead.

She later woke up at a private hospital close to where she was lynched without knowing how she got there.

After spending days at the Government Hospital and 44 Military Hospital, Kaduna, where her wounds were bound up and broken limbs mended, she finally was albe to begin her healing up process.

She acknowledged the management of her media outfit, her colleagues, Kaduna State government, the Nigerian Army, UNICEF and most especially the management and staff of AMRULLAH Hospital for their roles in keeping her alive.

Read part of her post below:

I never thought passing through Kaduna State on Sunday 21st of October, 2018 to connect Kano State for a two day Media Dialogue on Equity for the Girl Child Education could end up bloody for me.

About 4.35pm, two times this gentleman who was in the same car with me woke me up and said “Madam stay awake”. I replied him that I had written stories the previous nights before I embarked on the journey. Again, this man woke me up and said “madam pls stay awake”.

Then I opened my sleepy eyes very wide
and clearly saw miltary officers seated in their vehicles. Suddenly, a fellow passenger said, “Madam we have been making calls to know the safest road” and I said you mean this road is safe for us all? They all answered yes.

Suddenly at Kaduna By-Pass, I saw a trailer blocking the road and traffic was building up. Then the driver of the car I boarded (public transport of of course) beckoned at one of the youths holding an iron rod. Of course, he responded in Hausa language and another passenger translated this to me that he wanted to find another route out of the By-Pass.

Suddenly, a number of the young men sighted me in the car and my driver started pleading with them, telling them “Da Allah ki ya kuri”. I was the only female in the car and extremely unusual of me I wore what you saw in the pictures above with an head-tie (turban).

RACE OF MY LIFE

The young men, best described as miscreants, were more than fifteen. They started hitting the side of the car I was in. Actually, my head was blank. I couldn’t say one word of prayer. I didn’t panic and was ready to run the race of my life.

Immediately my fellow passengers took to their heels from the front door and the left rear door. Then I summoned courage and opened the right side door which was already surrounded by men holding all manner of irons and stones. My turban (head-tie) fell off as I started running towards an uncompleted building. Immediately I realised I could be finished off in the building, so with heavy stones landing on my back and long metallic objects hitting my body from behind, I turned and thought of crossing the gutter on Kaduna by-pass.

Yes I fell down heavily with stones landing on my body. I watched myself being LYNCHED with all manners of iron rods and sticks and was being stoned at the same time. Nobody dared stopped these youths from stoning me neither was I rescued from their hands.

I actually saw one of them videoing what they were doing to me and I sincerely was running within me to catch up with my breathe. Death is Painful!

I suddenly didn’t feel the impact of the irons on my body again and the stones were no longer making sounds to me. I was hearing ‘Jesus is Lord’ inside my head clearly as if with a megaphone. I was seeing my mother, my son and my daughter’s faces all at the same time and somehow I kept hearing in my head that all they were doing was not up to the pains labour.

I crawled inside the gutter. Of course I was already almost inside the gutter by the by-pass before i fell. I felt peace in my body and I found solace inside the gutter. I saw these youths gathered on the other side and I faintly saw a crowd of men watching me. And I saw clearly one of them carrying a stone with his two hands right over me. I raised up one hand pleading with him and making appealing gestures. That was the last thing I saw.

HEAVY SLEEP CAME OVER POWERED ME

Heavy & Deep Sleep came over me inside the gutter. The thing overpowered me and I watched my hand drawn away. From this moment I didn’t know what happened again. I couldn’t tell what, where and anything about myself again. I didn’t know what switched me off.

I was completely switched off till I woke up at AMRULLAH Hospital (also along Kaduna by-pass) on a stretcher. I started telling them I am a journalist with Voice of Nigeria and I was only passing through Kaduna State to attend a Media Dialogue in Kano State. I attempted standing up from the stretcher but my body didn’t respond. I was asked for phone numbers. Heaven helped me to remember my younger sister’s number and the father of my children’s number.

AMRULLAH Hospital cane totally to my rescue. About six drips including flagyl & all manners were pumped into my system. I was revived. Head suturing were done by a young Muslim doctor who was crying while suturing my head. Hospital attendants were cleaning the stretcher stained with my blood. Everybody was put on guard. The miscreants traced me to the hospital and demanded that I should be released to them by the hospital to be killed. This Muslim hospital saved me. They hid me away from them. I was kept in a ward and locked in with a nurse who was given instructions not to open the ward for anyone whose voice she didn’t know. Only the hospital manager, the doctor on duty and two nurses were given access to where I was.

On the second day, I asked the only face I saw when I woke up from a deep sleep: “I said please who brought me here.” He looked at me with tears filling his eyes and said: “A JTF officer brought you lifeless. We rejected you because you were not breathing again and insisted he should not drop your body with us”

The AMRULLAH Hospital Manager later said, “When we refused to take you, the JTF man dropped you on our stretcher ans said you could come back that we should try reviving you.”

AMRULLAH Hospital treated me and stabilised me. Then a thousand plus calls started coming through to the the Hospital. They said My family members were worried dead alive while my colleagues had sleepless night.

MANAGEMENT OF VOICE OF NIGERIA STOOD BY ME

In the midst of it all, Mr Ahaziah Suleiman My Exe. Dir. of News, Mr Ben Shemang, Hajia Sani, Hajia Hauwa and the DG I heard set contacts in motion for my proper care.

VON KADUNA STATE CORRESPONDENT SUDDENLY BECAME A MOTHER

Her name is Hajia Asmau. She was the family I saw; she was the colleague on ground; she wept uncontrollably and was still the one consoling herself. I watched Asmau wiped tears from her own eyes several times. Above all, this lady risked her life to identify with me in the hospital and practically carried a wheelchair bound colleague to her house to ensure my safety.

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