From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Gunmen on Thursday afternoon stormed a settlement called Ungwar Makeri, Mokoro Zankariya of Idon ward in Kajuru Local Government area of Kaduna State and abducted 15 persons. Three of the victims were later freed, it was gathered, while the rest were forced into the forest. A credible source in the area said the well-armed invaders numbering about 100 crept into the community at about 1:00 pm, requesting drinking water from the villagers under the pretence that they were not in the area to harm anyone.
On Tuesday, February 16, 22 persons were kidnapped, and four were critically injured when marauding invaders attacked Idon Hanya, about 15 kilometres away from where 12 other persons were abducted on Thursday. One of the injured victims later died
“The kidnappers rejected the N10 million ransom raised by the community to secure the freedom of the 22 persons earlier kidnapped in Idon Hanya. While we are still on that, they struck again yesterday”, a source said on the February 16 kidnapping incident. On Thursday’s incident, a credible source said: “After the villagers had given the kidnappers water, the gunmen went into a conversation with their tribal men in the settlement and before one could know what was happening, they started shooting sporadically into the air and kidnapped 15 persons (men and women) in the process.
“But on their way, they released three persons and went with 12 others. They told the released four persons to go and look for money and expect phone calls from them to discuss where the ransom would be brought to,” the source said.
The Supervisory Councillor of Admin, Finance and Health, Kajuru Local Government area of Kaduna State, said the council has been reporting the issue to the higher authorities and also holding security meetings with security persons within its reach. According to him, those who were taken into captivity are Ishaku Ayuba, Dogara Ayuba, Samaniya Donald, Monday Adauji, Azurfa Adauji, Patience Adauji, Zakariya Adauji, Dorathy Adauji, Eunice Monday, Agnes John, Abani John and Donald Livinus. As of the time of filing this report, both the Kaduna State Police Command and Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs were yet to release an official statement on the development.