Malam Sabi’u Usman Saurayi, a 29-year-old banker residing in the Nassarawo community of Gombe State capital, has shared the chilling account of how he narrowly escaped from suspected organ traffickers who attempted to remove his kidney.
The incident occurred last week when Sabi’u, suffering from a fever, boarded a commercial motorcycle to seek medical help. However, his condition deteriorated mid-journey, prompting the rider to drop him by the roadside to recover while looking for another means of transport.
It was at that vulnerable moment that a man approached him in a car, offering a ride. Sabi’u said he accepted the offer because the driver called him by name, leading him to assume it was someone he knew—possibly a customer from one of the banks where he had worked.
Once inside the vehicle, he discovered two other men in the back seat. “They immediately dragged me to the center and forced a beanie over my head, covering my face completely,” he recalled. “We drove for about 25 minutes before they stopped and removed the cap. I found myself in a strange room, surrounded by three men.”
One of the men, dressed in medical gloves and a face mask, began taking bodily samples—blood, saliva, and later urine—despite Sabi’u’s protests. “When I said I didn’t need to urinate, a large man struck me hard in the back, triggering an immediate response. I was terrified, disoriented, and still burning with fever,” he said.
He refused food and remained locked in the room, alone, until late that night when the captors returned briefly. A wall clock in the room showed 11:20 a.m., marking how long he had been held without answers.
Sabi’u later overheard plans to transport him to Kaduna for surgery to remove and sell his kidney. “That realization hit me like a bolt of lightning. My heart raced. I knew I had to escape or I wouldn’t survive,” he said.
