28th August, 2019
Dare-devil kidnappers and bandits have sent several messages to Nigeria’s police chief and the military that they are still a potent force and as they struck in Katsina and Kaduna states.
On the notorious Kaduna-Abuja highway, three final year law students of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria were among no fewer than seven people abducted Tuesday evening, about 6pm. at a point 40kms to Kaduna.
PRNigeria identified the undergraduates, two females and one male, as Fatima from Taraba, Maryam from Niger and Umar from Katsina States.
“The three abducted students are all 500-Level law students of ABU Zaria. We learn that the kidnappers initially demanded for N50m ransom each but later reduced to N5m because they are students who are yet to be working.”
A passenger who escaped during the encounter with the kidnappers told PRNigeria that they attacked commercial vehicles and big trucks.
“I am surprise that unlike their previous antics of attacking rich and big people in exotic cars, the kidnappers now attack commercial vehicles, trucks and buses and abducted their poor drivers and passengers.
“I shed tears when I noticed corpses of victims littered on the road after the brutal abduction incident.
“Some top public functionaries with armed convoy who came later refused to stop when crying women sought for help and protection.”
Indeed a video that has gone viral on social media shows security men in the convoy of former Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo’s convoy firing into the air to disperse the kidnappers.
A commercial driver Ibrahim Ahmed told The Nation that, “I escaped the attack because, the convoy of one Governor, which I was running behind arrived the scene during the operation, the security then fired shots and dispersed the kidnappers but they went away with many people.
“They blocked the expressway and started firing at vehicles passing before the Governor arrived. They kidnapped people during the operations and took them into the forest.”
In Katsina, there were two incidents of abduction and banditry carried out between Sunday and Tuesday.
Bandits struck in Shimfida in Jibiya Local Government Area on Sunday, and engaged the military and police in gun battle.
The bandits burnt down three military vehicles and another operational vehicle belonging to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
Spokesman for the Katsina Police Command, ASP Anaz Gezawa, confirmed the burning of the vehicles on Monday.
The duel was said to have occurred when a distress call was received at the Jibiya police station a few minutes after 10pm that the bandits had blocked Shimfida Road.
The station DPO reportedly mobilised his officers and men to the scene to curtail the situation. Gezawa revealed that three women returning to Shimfida from the market were caught in the crossfire.
He said the women who sustained gunshot injuries, are on admission at the General Hospital, Katsina.
On Tuesday, gunmen against struck, raiding the village of Wurma in Kurfi LGA, Katsina. They took away five women.
According to police spokesman, Anas Gezawa, 15 women were initially abducted by the gunmen who escaped before the arrival of local police.
However, due to an intense police patrol within the general area, 10 of the victims were rescued and reunited with their families.
According to him, an unspecified number of cattle were also taken away by the attackers. The police have intensified the search to rescue the remaining victims, he added.