By AbdulSalam Muhammad, Kano

Twice in two months, Ali Hudu Kurma, a  25-year-old deaf and dumb, narrowly escaped  from suspected kidnappers. On each occasion, he had boarded a commercial vehicle  from Piako  to Kano, where he had lived  over the last one decade  and met some strange faces that made him uncomfortable and, on the two occasions, he  choose to force  his way  out to safety.

Kurma, which means deaf and dumb in Hausa  language, is  a native of Kudan, a Fulani village near Zaria, Kaduna State. He  lost his father, Malam Hudu, when he was just  four; the mum passed on  when he was six, leaving the poor boy in the hands of his three elder sisters.

Kurma’s sojourn on earth is a moving story of an orphan thrown into the society that has little or no provision for his type,  to learn how to live the hard way.

Unlike his first experience when he peacefully alighted from the vehicle at a  motor park in Zaria, his latest experience at Gwarmai, one of the villages located at  kilometer 72, Kano —Zaria Road, could pass  as an encounter with death. He was running an errand for his teacher when he encountered the kidnappers the second time.

According to Kurma, “It was already sunset on that Monday evening when I  was rushing to get to Kano. I boarded a  bus where I met four persons including the driver and one posing as conductor. Barely few second into the journey, my instinct told me to get out of the car immediately. In compliance, I requested the driver to pull his break to enable me come down which he rejected. The driver’s refusal further fuelled my fear that I might have landed in the hands of kidnappers and  I  was left with no option to make it  a jihad to safety”.

Kurma, who gave a graphic picture of his miraculous escape, narrated: “I immediately dashed to the rear side of the vehicle  to escape but  the conductor  fought tooth and nail to keep me inside the vehicle. By this time, a good  part of my body was outside and was dragging along. I  was compelled  to pull off my shirt that the conductor was holding on to and crashed  by the way side like a pack of cards.

Ali Hudu Kurma

“In what appeared  like a lost  game to the suspected kidnappers, the driver  braked hard and was coming  back in  my direction. From nowhere I gathered  enough strength to cross over to the other side of the expressway. When it became  clear I was not within their reach the assailants left me.”

With bruises all over me and  half naked, no vehicle on the road was ready to give  a helping hand  to a man that looked  more like a mad man. I was forced to walked my way back to where the kidnappers picked  me from  bloodied  and related my experience to  the people I met  at the loading bay.

“I lost my wallet containing some cash, my cell phone, and of course my shoes during the desperate bid to escape, and I  was lucky when a known driver within the same route offered  to take me to Kano on charter.“

He told Sunday Vanguard, “ I was  on  an errand to Piako, a Fulani village near Gwarmai, on the request of my Malam (teacher) who had lost his son a day before after attempt to inform the relations in the village about the passage. I had successfully delivered the message when I encountered the bad people”.

He  relayed his experience  in front of his shop where he hawks PPMC and kerosene through a third party that had lived  with  the man  born with the physical challenges.

The pathetic story of thep hysically challeged  coincided with loss of fortune entrusted to the hands a friend who absconded with his mearger resources raise through hard work to  hawk  petro chemicals.

Kurma, putting up a dry smile stated, “ Can you imagine that the person I  left  my shop  with while  embarking on the journey absconded with my capital on a day some unknown person  removed  almost 100litres from my  surface tank?”.

The victim,  a kindergarten student of Kano Torrey Home where he had enroll to improve his speech and specialize in the art of sign language, declared: “I am not discouraged by the sequence of events that seems to be conspiring to draw me back. I want to believe it is all signs of good things to come and I have chosen to remain steadfast in my prayers to overcome the trials.”

“I am certainly going to make it in life. The signs are there and I have consistently made progress in the  learning of  the scriptures with few chapters to round up now, and you asked what else do I want in life and the hereafter?, Kurma queried.

News of the miraculous escape of Kurma in the hands of suspected kidnappers enveloped his Naibawa neighbourhood, forcing well wishers to stroll in to and identify with him in the moderate apartment where he lives with his Arabic teacher.

Kurma’s Arabic Teacher, Sheik Mamman, expressed optimism that “better things await him in life”, adding that the “hiccups are necessary bumps  in the highways of success”.