How herders killed, dismembered my husband time I was busy searching for him –Kaduna ECWA pastor’s wife

Life has taken a tough turn for 80-year-old Alisabatu Silas, mother of Evangelical Church Winning All Pastor, Rev. Yakubu Silas, hacked to death by suspected herders along the Zango-Urban area of Zango-Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State on September 11.

Yakubu was her eldest son among the seven children she bore for her late husband who was also a pastor. “My husband died 20 years ago,” the octogenarian told our correspondent who visited her at her residence in Sankwab Runji in the Zango-Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Alisabatu stated that since her husband’s demise, the late Yakubu remained the family’s breadwinner until his death. She added that the news came to her as a shock, adding amid sobs, “I have lost a confidant. I wish it was me that died. May God help me to withstand the calamity that has befallen me.’’

The octogenarian noted that she fondly remembered how her late son usually advised members of his family not to visit his Zango Urban residence after 4 pm because of the area’s notoriety. She said, “My son was a victim and his life ended in the same Zango Urban community.”

She added that the painful aspect of her son’s death was that his body was dismembered, adding that some people found a ditch where his killers dumped his corpse.

She said, “Yakubu is the eldest of my children. The other six are females except for Joshua who is still young. Whatever he wanted to do, he always informed me and I used to tell him anything I wanted to do.  I stayed in Sankwab Runji in Zango Kataf but stayed in Kibori. At a particular time, he warned me that when it was past 4 pm, we should not come to his place because of the situation in the Zango Urban community, not knowing that the same community would end his life.

“My concern now is how to cater to his immediate family and the younger ones he left behind. I am without any strength. I wish I were the one that died.”

Speaking with our Punch reporter, the 40-year-old widow of the slain pastor, Sarah, said she was shattered by her husband’s death, noting that with his death, life wouldn’t be the same for her again.

She however said she took solace in the fact that her husband led a worthy life, adding that marrying him was the best decision that happened to her.

Sarah said the last word her husband told her was on the phone when he promised to call her when he got to his destination, stating “but the call never came.’’

Narrating further on the last moment with her husband, Sarah said she was in Jos, Plateau State, her home state, where she went to visit her other children and that before her husband travelled to Kafanchan on that day, he told her on the telephone of his intention to pay their son’s school fees.

She said, “He called to inform me that he was going to Kafanchan to pay the school fees of one of his sons studying at the Kafanchan campus of the Kaduna State University and from there he sent some money into my own account. The money he sent to my account was to enable me to travel back to our village, Kibori.

“While in Jos, my brother-in-law, Joshua, who is at Zango-Kataf called and said that I should reach out to my husband, saying he tried his mobile line many times to no avail. But I told him that we spoke on Saturday and that he called to inform me that he was at Madakiya on his way back to Zango-Kataf at about 5pm. I told him that I advised him to hasten up and pass Zango Urban before darkness fell because the place is notorious. And that he said once he reached home, he would call me.’’

Not satisfied with the situation Sarah said she decided to cut her visit and together with other children, hurriedly left Jos for Kibori to know her husband’s whereabouts.