On the night of April 14–15, 2014, the news of a kidnapping struck the entire country, but it was miles away from home, and a lot of us felt it was too far from home. It was the story of the Missing Chibok Girls, and many people came out to protest, but those movements showed they were all politically influenced. Since then, there have been attacks in different villages, cities, and towns, from bombings to kidnappings and massacres.
As years went by, they started moving from up north to down north, then to the east. Every news I heard broke me, got me worried that people were losing their lives. When I discuss this event with people, I would always tell them íf the terrorism wasn't handled immediately, the southwestern part of the country would not be spared. People would always say there was nothing to worry about, and it was just nothrners killing themselves.
From one terrorist group, it became two, three, and now we have multiple ones with new ones emerging and regrouping. These people murder people in cold blood, torture people, and make them beg for death. They go to communities, pick up the young, old, and youth. They burn down people's homes, destroy places of prayer, and so on, and they kept attacking from one state to another.
I felt a little safe and was hopeful that the government would fight this terrorism because I knew it could come down south west if not tackled once and for all. At the beginning of the year, I began hearing news of the bandits, or basically, terrorists, finding their way southwest, and I started to say this was the beginning of my fear becoming a reality. We still believed there was a possibility it was a rumor, and we held on to the faith that they weren't in our region, not until the past week when these terrorists went to a primary school, kidnapped both teachers and students aged 6 months to 10 years old, and beheaded a teacher.
The news and the horrific video sent shock and terror through our community. People began to pray and ask questions. Now I'm living in constant fear. The incident occurred just miles from where I live. I fear for my life and have stayed home all week. I'm terrified of losing myself, traumatizing my family, or enduring torture at the hands of these evil people. I am genuinely frightened.
