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From John Adams Minna
There was a little sigh of relief in the Kuchi community in Munya Local Government Area of Niger State, yesterday morning, as no fewer than 40 victims out of the 150 who were kidnapped three weeks ago regained their freedom.
The 40 victims released, mostly women and children, however, came at a heavy cost for members of the community, who were made to part with six Honda product motorcycles, each valued about N1.2 million, and N2 million cash as ransom.
A reliable source close to the Kuchi community, who made the disclosure to Daily Sun in Minna, on telephone, yesterday, however, said 110 people are still being held in captivity by the bandits. It was further gathered that the bandits equally demanded another six motorcycles and N2 million cash for the release of another batch of 40 hostages, even though negotiations were still ongoing between the bandits and the community.
The bandits, in their numbers, invaded the community three weeks ago and unleashed terror on the people, killing seven people, including four security agents, and went away with no fewer than 150 villagers. Shops, houses and food barns were freely looted in an operation that, the villagers said, lasted for over three hours without any resistance.
Two weeks after the abduction, the bandits demanded N150 million ransom for the release of the victims, after rejecting the N100,000 offered by the community for each victim.
“We have been negotiating with them (bandits) but, finally, they agreed to collect six Honda motorcycles and N2 million for the release of two groups, totalling 40 in number. The 150 people they abducted were divided into six groups, and they said we should bring six Honda motorcycles and N2 million cash for each of the groups. This is after they rejected our initial offer of N100,000 for each person. They have released two groups, the remaining four groups”, our source said.
Our source said since the attack occurred three weeks ago, no single government official or security agents have visited the community for on-the-spot-assessment of what happened, adding that “the community is left without security at the moment, and it has remained deserted”.
In addition to this, there was no official statement from either the government or the security agents over the attack except the Chairman of the local government, Aminu Najume, who earlier confirmed the abduction to Daily Sun on telephone.
However, when contacted on the release of the 40 people, the chairman said the council was not involved in the negotiation with the bandits, as it was entirely between the community and the bandits. He, nonetheless, promised to get back to Daily Sun to confirm if, truly, 40 people were released, but never did until the time of filing this report.
