The Day Soldiers Killed Five of My Nieces

 The Day Soldiers Killed Five of My Nieces

By Abdullahi Muhammad

I’m from Gwagwalada in Abuja. That Saturday morning, I left for work to supervise some labourers. My brothers had all gone to the National Mosque for the annual anniversary of Sheikh Usman Bin Fodio. When I returned home later, I found them hurriedly packing their things.

I asked where they were going. They told me soldiers had opened fire on our brothers at the Hussainiyya in Zaria and were still killing people. Without another word, I packed my own bag and left with them.

We reached Zaria by 11 p.m.—right in the middle of the siege. The military was shelling Hussainiyya and Gyallesu, so we couldn’t get through. We spent the night at the Islamic Centre in Danmagaji.

At dawn, after Subh prayers, we managed to sneak into Gyallesu. The martyrs had arrived before me; we’d taken different routes. I saw them standing at the gate of our leader’s residence, but I didn’t see Fatima.

When I asked where she was, someone said she was with some girls around the corner. What I didn’t know was that those girls had already been killed when they tried to enter that corner. Fatima was the only one left alive.

I called her phone. Her voice rang in my ear: “Big Daddy—where are you?” (That’s what they always called me.)

“I’m with Nusaiba. Where are you?”

“I’m surrounded by heaps of corpses. They were all shot. I’m lying among the dead right now, and the soldiers are only inches away. If I move, they’ll shoot me. Please forgive me. We’ll meet again in the House of Peace.”

She said if we called back and she didn’t answer, it would mean she’d been martyred.

That’s exactly what happened. We called again and again—no answer.

Earlier, back at the Islamic Centre, we’d heard their elder brother Mukhtar had been arrested. Nusaiba feared he’d been martyred. But Fatima insisted, “No, he’s alive. I’ll be the first to attain martyrdom.”

A’isha’s friend had dreamed A’isha was martyred; her husband Buhari replied that the dream might mean him instead. The way they spoke—it was as if they knew their time was near. And in a way, that was a small mercy. They died for a cause they believed in, at a time they were ready.

When we entered Gyallesu, Fatima was shaken by the gunfire coming from every direction. She said, “In the next three hours, I will join Imam Hussain (AS).”

She was, in fact, the first among them to be martyred.

We stayed at our leader’s house until the soldiers overpowered the brothers guarding it. I was with Nusaiba, Aisha, her husband Buhari Bello Jega, their little daughter Batool, and many others. I saw a brother get shot right in front of me. We carried him to a house where we kept the martyrs, but soldiers stormed in and shot him—and another wounded brother. By some miracle, the bullets missed me.

They caught me, beat me, and dragged me away. As I was pulled back, I saw Buhari lying dead in front of the Sheikh’s residence. Nusaiba and the others had managed to get inside.

The soldiers argued over whether to kill me. One aimed his gun, but another stopped him. Instead, they pushed me up onto a wall and told me to run.

Once I got away, I called Nusaiba. She whispered they were inside the Sheikh’s house, but they’d been shot. She’d been hit in the stomach. Aisha and little Batool were already gone.

I was trapped for hours before finally escaping late that evening.

Now, I want our brothers and sisters to understand: Our Leader never hid the truth from us. We knew about this conspiracy and how it would unfold. What happened has only strengthened our faith that we are on the right path.

Look at history: When Abu Labulh accused the Prophet of wanting to create a parallel government, it was the same accusation used against Imam Ali, Hasan, and Hussain. When Yazid took power, he said he would never allow a state within a state.

What happened to us is no different. Our brothers were massacred, and the authorities scrambled for excuses. First, they claimed an attempt on Buratai’s life—then they knew that made no sense. Then they said we blocked a road. But President Buhari himself finally said it: the government “cannot allow a state within a state.”

It’s the same old threat, the same old fear. Just as it was in the time of the Prophet.

So let us prepare ourselves. Let us do what is right, when it is right, and trust in divine help as believers before us have. Let us keep praying, keep raising our voices, until our Leader is freed.

Culled from the book "Survivors of the December 2015 Massacre of Shiites in Nigeria: The Unsilenced Voices". 

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