Train Attack: I Treated Wounded Terrorists, Captives In Boko Haram Den — Freed Medical Doctor Speaks

One of the recently released hostages abducted from the Kaduna-Abuja train, Dr Mustapha Imam, has recounted his ordeal in captivity, emphasizing the lack of access to medical care.

His release, alongside four others, came after four months of been held hostage by terrorists, Tukur Mamu, a media consultant to Islamic Scholar, Ahmed Gumi, confirmed on Tuesday.

Speaking to Mamu in an interview on Tuesday, Imam said contrary to what they listened to on the radio while in captivity, there was poor access to healthcare because he catered for the health of both terrorists and the victims.

The associate professor at the Usman Dan Fodio University Teaching Hospital in Sokoto said, “When you talk about medication, I was the medical doctor on camp. I was treating the bandits as well as the captives. There was no medication. To be frank with you, we heard on the radio someone claiming that they would bring medication whenever it was needed.

“There was a day a particular lady who had malaria; You could treat malaria with N1,000, but this lady literally was going into a coma because there wasn’t medication for her malaria. So, the situation is really terrible.”

Imam also highlighted feeding as an issue faced by captives, and according to him, for the last three and half months of their stay, they had little or no food to eat. He noted that it was worse seeing an infant and aged victim go through similar situations.

He revealed, “Quite frankly, the experience I have been through in the last four months is not something I will like even my enemy to go through, because there was barely food for people to eat, we were hungry for the last three and half months.

“We were surprised that in the last two weeks, they started bringing foodstuff that we ate, and we were actually okay for the last two weeks, but the first three and half months, we were very hungry, and when I say very hungry, it is just an understatement.

“There were days that we just ate only once. Just imagine some children are barely one-year-old and a 90-year-old person feeding once a day. Just do the math.”

When asked if there was any record of molestation in the captor’s den, he expressed his uncertainty saying, “I did not experience any molestation, but some women on camp will claim that there was an attempt at molestation, and this happened in the first one to two weeks after we were held captives”.

He called on the federal government to do everything possible to free the remaining captives because of the “terrible” living condition of the victims.

The recent release of victims takes the number to 27, while at least 35 are still in captivity.

On March 28, terrorists abducted at least 62 passengers from a train heading to Kaduna. The situation claimed the lives of nine people, and 26 reportedly got injured.