The Katsina State Government on Wednesday announced the rescue of 12 out of 19 travellers who were headed to Katsina from Minna, the Niger state capital but were kidnapped by bandits who disguised themselves as security men at Maraba Kankara village in Kankara LGA of the state, on Monday at about 8pm
The Victims were flagged down by men in uniform whom the passengers thought to be Police but later realized they were bandits
The Secretary to the Government of Katsina State, Mustapha Mohammed Inuwa who received the rescued victims on behalf of Governor Aminu Bello Masari, told newsmen that their release was facilitated by the cooperation between the state Government and the repentant bandits who immediately swung into action on the directive by Government on the incident
Though the victims were 19 in number, only 12 were rescued as at Wednesday morning with the remaining 7 being held back but the SGS assured that the remaining victims will surely be rescued to reunite with their families latest Wednesday.
He said’’ when we get the information about their kidnap we enquired from the repentant bandits to know exactly the person who kidnapped them, so we sent messages across to the leader of the bandits that he must release these people unconditionally without any delay’’.
‘’Before we sent signal to Abuja, we gave them very clear directive that we will work with the security operatives and the repentant bandits to ensure that these people are released and that’s what we did. The bandit’ leader initially resisted the attempt but due to pressure from the repentant bandits and from government they were able to release them”.
Also one of the kidnapped victim, Maji Solomon while narrating their ordeal in the hands of the kidnappers said they were attacked on Sunday night and were later taken to the bush by the kidnappers where they had to trek for long nights
He said ‘’we kept walking from 8 to 9 o’clock to their hide out, changing directions and all that. We were about 31 or there about and at some point they released those that were weak and old ones among us, which finally brought down the number to 19.Now 12 of us have been freed ,remaining 7 still in the bush’’