Dear Editor,
We wish to share a scary and terrifying incident we encountered during our recent travel from Honiara to Auki, and then on to our village at the Fouia head-road in northeast Malaita.
When we arrived in Auki, we realised that all three trucks destined for Fouia head-road had departed and so we had to look around for any truck travelling north road.
Then we saw a truck with the name SF. We knew that the truck would also reach Fouia head-road and so we boarded it.
The truck however, only reached Takwa station and turned back. It didn’t travel to Fouia head-road, as we had anticipated.
The SF truck then returned to its base near the Taba’a bridge in North Malaita Constituency, with us on board.
We were waiting in the truck when suddenly some money boys armed with knives came and violently threatened us with knives and hit the sides of the truck with their knives.
After a while the truck took off and drove along a road leading into the mountain. It came to a location where there is a bottomless pit and stopped.
Suddenly a well-dressed lady appeared. She recognised us and asked the kidnappers why they took us up to the pit.
She told them that we should be dropped off at the Fouia head-road. She then left and walked up to the mountain.
As she left, the truck turned back and hurriedly took us back to Fouia head-road.
However, the SF truck did not properly park so we could disembark. It just made a non-stop U-turn at Fouia.
So, we had to jump off the truck. On arrival at our village, we were told that the people in North Malaita were making roadblocks and threatened to kill anyone from Baegu to avenge an incident that occurred in Honiara in mid-August.
If it was not for that mysterious woman we would have been thrown into the bottomless pit.
This is not the first time the people in North Malaita have set up road-blocks. Innocent people have been threatened by such roadblocks.
In this case kidnapping and attempted murder had occurred.
We recognised the face of the woman but could not remember her name or who she was.
Even the kidnappers recognised her. It was just a mysterious intervention!
Goldie Suri & John Suluna
