•Families paid N32.7m ransom
From John Adams, Minna
Communities in Paikoro Local Government Area of Niger State have narrated how Munya Local Government Council chairman in the state, Hon. Najume Aminu, stopped members of special local vigilantes from entering his territory to rescue some kidnapped victims held by gunmen within his council.
This development forced the relations of the victims to cough out a whopping sum of N32.7 million, including food items and motorcycles, as ransom to secure the release of their loved ones after months in captivity.
A woman who attempted to escape from her captors unknown to her that her ransom had been paid by her family, waiting to be released, was beaten to death by the bandits after she, along with two other women she had led to a nearby river to have their bath under the permission of their captors, were caught by another group of bandits.
However, three men, including an Igbo trader whom the bandits were demanding N20 million for his release, are still being held captive by the bandits.
The council chairman, it was gathered, ordered one of his supervisory councilor s to stop the local vigilantes from going into the bush for any operation, saying that he was not informed of the operation.
Over 57 people, including women and children, were abducted from Kafin-Koro, Adunu and Kwagana communities in Paikoro local government area of the state by gunmen on March 14, 2023 and were taken to a forest within Sarkin pawa, the headquarters of Munya local government area.
The gunmen, it was gathered, demanded N100million ransom for the release of the victims, but after series of negotiations with the families of the victims, the gunmen asked their families to separately negotiate the release of each of the victims.
This led to the families paying deferent sums of money depending on power of negotiation and individual involved. While some families were said to have paid between N2million to N4million, others paid between N600, 000 and N700,000 to secure the release of their loved ones.
According to a source close to the communities, while only three people are still being held out of those that were abducted from Kafin-Koro and its surrounding villages, the number of victims still being held among those abducted from Adunu, Beni and Ishau communities could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report.
All the victims, it was gathered, have spent over 100 days since they were abducted by the bandits.
However, the relations of the victims, who said they are exhausted after selling all their belongings to pay the N32.7million ransom, told our correspondent how their efforts in trying to seek the help of local vigilantes from a neighboring state for the rescue of their loved ones, since no help was coming from the government or any political office holder in the area, and no attempt from the security agents to rescue the people, was allegedly thwarted by the council chairman.
A member of one of the affected communities, who narrated their ordeal, told our correspondent how the local government chairman gave the order that no vigilante should enter his territory for any rescue operation.
Speaking under the condition of anonymity, he disclosed that before the arrival of the mercenaries, the communities informed their council chairman, Paikoro local government, Hon. Umar Aminu Yandayi, of their intention to engage the services of local vigilantes from a neighboring state since they could no longer afford the ransom that was being demanded by the bandits and no efforts from the government to help the communities.
According to him, “our chairman accepted the suggestion and assured us that he will notify his counterpart from Munya local government area of the development. Even when the mercenaries arrived, we notified him that the people are around for the operations.
“But to our surprise, on the day of the operation and midway into the bush, a call came from the Munya local government area’s chairman, asking the vigilantes not enter his territory for any rescue operation as he was not aware of such arrangement.
“That was how the people turned back and returned to their base and the communities became helpless and the relations were forced to look for the money to pay the ransom to secure the release of their loved ones. Nobody is coming to our rescue, not even the government, and that was the only hope we had.”
However, when contacted for his reactions, Najume Aminu admitted that he ordered the stoppage of the rescue operation because he was not informed that there was going to be such operation in his territory.
According to him, as the chief security officer of the local government area, any group or individual that wanted to carry out such sensitive operation within his domain should have informed him in other to avoid any conflict either between the locals or the conventional security agents in the area.
He said: “The ideal thing was for them to have informed me of such operation as the chairman and chief security officer of the council. If you are going to carry out any activities in someone’s territory, it is expected that you inform him to prepare his mind to avoid any clash.
“But in this case, nobody informed me and in the present situation we are facing in terms of security challenges, especially in my local government area, it could be dangerous to carry out such sensitive operation without letting the people of the area know through their leaders because they (vigilantes) could be mistaken for bandits.
“And that was exactly what happened because immediately the villagers saw them, they started running into the bush thinking that they were bandits and they alerted me that some bandits have invaded the community.”
He further disclosed that he immediately called the supervisory councior from the area, who after enquiries, told him that the people were actually vigilantes who told him (the councilor) that they came for rescue operations. He said: “It was at that point that I directed the councilor to ask them to go back because I was not aware of their coming.
“After I stopped the operation, I decided to contact my colleague, the chairman of Paikoro, who admitted that he was aware of the operation but that he forgot to inform me and to seek for my cooperation. But I told him that I have stopped the operation because there was no proper communication and it was risky to allow such operation”.
However all attempts to get reaction of the Paikoro local government area to comment on this development could not yield any results as he was not picking his calls. He equally did not respond to text message sent to him by our correspondent.
Meanwhile the bandits have issued a fresh one week ultimatum to the families of the remaining victims to pay the ransom or they will be killed, saying that they (bandits) can no longer feed them.