By Luka Binniyat
(Kaduna) – In Nigeria’s flyover country of Kaduna state, the forested savannah is covered with kidnapper gold. To hear the President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, tell it in The Hill, the kidnappers have no tribe or religion – just heartless love of ransom. But the victims speaking to TruthNigeria have three things in common: They are church-goers; they are traumatized, and they are broke. They say the kidnappers speak Fulde language and are members of the Fulani tribe.
Pamela Dauda, 12, from Bundun-Kahugu in Lere County on the border between Southern Kaduna, Bauchi State and Plateau State, was freed from terrorist captivity after five months, but her mother and two siblings remain in the hands of their captors despite the payment of ransom six months after their abduction.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen in Kaduna, Tuesday, May 2, 2026, Pamela said that her father, Dauda Bitrus, had earlier been kidnapped by Fulani ethnic militia in November 2024, but died two weeks after his release on Dec. 15, 2024. TruthNigeria investigations of 17 kidnappings for ransom throughout Southern Kaduna suggest that the kidnappers’ aggregated takings from Southern Kaduna alone is $1.4 million a year.
Mother and Two Children in Captivity in Rijana
Pamela Dauda said that her mother, Martha Dauda, 52, and her siblings, Yakubu Dauda, 14, and Celina Dauda, 9, are still being held in a forest camp which she believes is close to a notorious Fulani terrorist camp network in the border area between Chikun County and Kachia County in Kaduna State. The region of the camps is fairly close to the town of Rijana on the Abuja-Kaduna expressway.
The Rijana forest area is on the eastern flank of Kachia county, in Southern Kaduna and shares a border with Niger state where the bushes form part of the infamous Kamuku Forest reserve.
“The Fulani are always talking about going to Rijana. It is not far from where they kept us under some trees beside a stream,” she said. “It’s from there that they bought provisions,” she added.
According to Pamela, there were no fewer than 300 hostages in the camp, with about 20 armed guards constantly on watch. She said that she witnessed the summary execution of persons whose relatives failed to raise ransom.
“The people that they normally kill are the ‘yan banga’ (community volunteer guards usually called ‘vigilante’ here). She revealed that the terrorists have families who live a short distance from where the hostages are kept. “They have plenty of cows,” she said.
Repentant Terrorists Still Active In Crime
Pamela, who has missed an entire school session due to her captivity, added that the terrorists have a leader who occasionally visits the camp. “They call him, ‘Yellow One Million,’” she said.
Curiously, this same Yellow One Million has been reported in the media as one of the terrorists who was pardoned after a series of peace negotiations in which he reportedly renounced violence. A 2025 report by ThisDay referred to him as “now a mediator and peace advocate.”
“My older brother (Dauda, 14) is always beaten, because he is a man,” she said of the boy, barely 14 years old. “He was bleeding from his mouth and was too weak to stand by himself when I was freed three weeks ago,” she added. “We are fed one meal of ‘tuwon masara’ – cooked mashed corn powder – without soup once every five days,” she said.
As far as she could recall, she never witnessed any attempt to rescue them.
Desperate Plea for Rescue
“I am pleading with you to help me get my mother, brother and sister out of that place. I fear that my brother may die,” she said.
“They were kidnapped almost around the same period that her father was abducted by Fulani kidnappers in 2024,” explained Mr. Malik Gana, a younger brother of the abducted woman, in an interview with TruthNigeria on Tuesday, May 2, 2026 in Kaduna. “As Pamela has said, her father didn’t survive the trauma and health complications after his release, and he died two weeks later,” he affirmed. “To raise the ransom for his release, the family sold almost everything they had,” he added.
How My Sister Was Kidnapped
“Then on November 29, 2025, the same Fulani terrorists stormed our village, Bundun-Kahugu, broke through the walls of my sister’s bedroom and seized her along with her three children,” he said.
According to him, the terrorists initially demanded N50 million ($35,000) and three motorcycles. However, after months of bargaining and pleas, they agreed to accept N15 million ($11,000) and one motorcycle.
“I was the one that took the ransom with the understanding that all four would be released,” he said. “Unfortunately, they only released Pamela and in a condition of near death due to starvation and illness,” he added.
No Honour Among Terrorists
“They are now asking for a balance of N35 million ($25,000) and two motorcycles,” he said.
Gana stated that he had reported the matter to all relevant security agencies in Kaduna State and even provided the phone number of the terrorist with whom he had been negotiating, but received little more than promises and excuses.
“In each operation that the military said they were going to carry out to rescue my sister and her children, we gave between N1.2 million ($900) and N1.5 million ($1,000), and we have a deposit of N5 million ($3,500) with a certain military man as part of the rescue or ransom negotiation as at now,” he said in frustration.
“We cannot raise what they are asking for. Because we have come to a dead end,” he said. “That’s why we have come to the press to make our case known to the world for any form of assistance that would lead to the freedom of my sister and her children,” he said.
Luka Binniyat writes for TruthNigeria on conflict and politics from Kaduna.
