“Eventually they made their way to Maiduguri, but the worst was yet to come,” the charity foundation reports, narrating the torture that the 22-year-old and her family went through at the hands of the Boko Haram militants.
Janada narrated to ACN that on settling in Maiduguri, her father obtained a piece of land and started farming to fend for the family.
“We were happy that all the nightmares we had experienced before had finally come to an end. Then came 20 October 2018, the day that took away the sunshine in our lives. We were at the farm, working happily, and singing some Catholic songs to raise our spirits, when suddenly we were surrounded by Boko Haram,” Janada says.
She adds, “When I saw them (Boko Haram militants), many thoughts ran through my mind: should I run away? If I do, what about my parents? What if they caught us even before we start running? Should I scream for help? Would anyone come to our rescue? I decided to remain calm and let God perform a miracle. But they did the unthinkable to us.”
She narrates that her family was crushed when the militants forced her father to sleep with her, adding that her father chose to die instead.
“I could not hold back my tears! I was shaking, but I could do nothing! My mother could not utter a word due to the state of shock she was in. With a machete pointed at my father’s forehead, he looked at my mother and at me, but I avoided eye contact because I was ashamed to look him in the face, ashamed of what the men had suggested – it was an abomination!” the Nigerian girl says.
She continues, “My father put his head down in submission to be killed and answered: ‘I cannot sleep with my own flesh and blood, my own daughter, I would rather die than commit this abomination.’… On hearing this, one of the men took out a machete and cut off my father’s head, right in front of us. The pain that I felt at that moment was unbearable.”
“My father’s blood was splattered all over the ground. Could you imagine the torture, the pain that I was going through at that moment? I pleaded with God to take my life; I was already a living corpse, but He turned a deaf ear! I found extraordinary courage, rushed, and took my head band to tie the head of my father to stop the blood from gushing out,” Janada says.
The cruel killing of her father was not, however, the end of her tribulations. She would be captured by another set of militants and undergo untold of torture in the bushes at the hands of the militants.
“On 9 November 2020, I was on the way to a government office when I was again surprised by Boko Haram. This time they captured me. They took me to the bush and tortured me severely, emotionally, physically and mentally for six days. I suffered a lot of terrible and wicked experiences – beyond explanation – that made those six days seem like six years,” she says.
