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From John Adams, Minna
The remaining 38 members of Zagzaga community in Munya local government area of Niger state who abducted exactly 37 day ago have regained their freedom.
Those set free in the early hours of Thursday, include 21 women, 15 men and two children, ages between two and five years.
A total of 69 members of the community were abducted last month when armed bandits in their numbers invaded the community in an operation the people said lasted for several hours.
Two members of the community were killed by the bandits while several others sustained gun shot injuries in that early morning raid.
Two weeks after the abduction, four women and four men escaped from the kidnappers den. Also early this week, 19 others, including a N5million ransom bearer who was seized by the bandits, escaped to safety.
The bandits had earlier demanded N1million for the release of each of their victims, but after much plea from the community, they (bandits) agreed to collect N5million.
However, drama ensued on Friday last week when the man who took the N5million ransom to the bandits was seized after he had delivered the money, with the bandits asking the community to pay additional N1million and two motorcycles for his release along the other abductees.
After two days in captivity, the ransom bearer led 18 others to escaped from the kidnappers den, after digging the wall of their “prison” for eight hours.
Confirming the release of the remaining 38 to Saturday Sun in Minna on Friday at a private hospital where they were receiving treatment, the Counsellor, representing Zagzaga Ward in Munya local government Council, Mallam Saleh Adamu said they victim were released at about 2:00pm on Thursday but arrived at a destination at about 8:00pm where they were picked up by some members of the community.
Mallam Adamu disclosed that the community took along, two new brand motorcycles bought from Kano as a result of the ban on sales of motorcycles in the state to the bandits before the people were eventually released.
According to him, “the two motorcycles is in addition to the N5million that was paid earlier to the bandits. They insisted that we must bring two motorcycles before they can release the remaining people.
“We bought each of the Handa Product of the motorcycles which they demanded for, for N700,000. “We sent someone to Kano to buy those motorcycles because the government banned the sales of motorcycles in the state”.
The counsellor whose two wives, a sister in law and two children were among those who regained freedom, pointed out that the community had no choice than to comply with the demand by the bandits ” became that was the only option left for us. There was no help coming from anywhere and no any attempt to rescue these people for over a month now so we have to take our destiny in our hands as a community.
“Life is more important than money, we thank God that they are back. The good news is that they were not molested by the bandits because they said nobody touched them. The bandits were just after money”, he added.
