ABUJA: How Kidnappers Obtained N5.2m Ransom To Free 5 Residents Of Kuje

Kidnappers who invaded Gbau Zokwoyako, a small community in the hinterlands of the Kuje Area Council, and abducted five people have collected N5.25m from families of the victims, THE WHISTLER has learnt.

THE WHISTLER reported that the kidnappers launched a house-to-house operation in the community on January 28, where three people were killed and five were whisked away to an unknown destination.

The development was despite ongoing intervention by the combined forces of the nation’s security agencies, including local security networks trailing the perpetrators.

The assailants contacted the families of their victims nearly every day, with different phone lines, threatening to kill their hostages if N10m was not paid for their freedom and switching off
immediately after each call.

THE WHISTLER gathered from residents that the affected families sold possessions and borrowed funds to raise the ransom while they continued negotiation.

The situation is not new to the residents of the area council.

On February 3, six days after the abduction, the abductors freed three out of the five victims after each family paid N1.2m, in total, N3.6m.

The kidnappers, however, held the remaining two victims — Yanana Buhari and Lakar Kure — Despite obtaining N1.65m.

Recall that the assailants also abducted the son of Buhari, Henry Yanana, but was later asked to return home after hours of journeying to an unknown location.

Yanana said his family and Kure sold family possessions including, lands and motorcycles to raise the N1.65m, and on February 10, delivered the ransom to the kidnappers in a community called
Tungan Maje, bordering Gwagwalada, a satellite area of the FCT.

But the kidnappers later contacted Yanana, claiming they never received the ransom, suggesting that another group may have obtained the fund.

Yanana in a conversation with THE WHISTLER said, “When we gave them the money, they refused to release my father and his friend. They called us to say that they were not the ones who received the money, therefore, we should pay the exact ransom again.

“I had to start all over to see what I could sell, and all I could raise was N280,000. In fact, I got tired and asked them to kill them, if they wanted to kill them. On Sunday (February 18), these people called to tell me where to bring the ransom and other items.

“They said I should bring a big bag of foreign rice, 10 bowls of beans, five trousers, N20,000 worth of weed, five rolls of cigarettes, wrapping paper… It was while we were on the call today (Sunday) that I
started to hear them run like they were chasing someone,” Yanana told THE WHISTLER.

Yanana would later learn that troops of the Nigerian Army along with a local security team invaded the kidnapper’s cave, rescuing Buhari, his father and his friend. He recalled hearing gunshots and repeated
calls to the phone were left unanswered.

Operatives of the Army, our correspondent learnt, had taken custody of the rescued victims and as of Monday, February 19, were receiving medical treatment at an undisclosed hospital in Gwagwalada.

Insecurity has declined in the FCT, especially in the last three weeks, as security agencies intensify their offensive onslaught against criminals who hitherto built enclaves in the suburbs of the
city, terrorising and kidnapping residents.

Security operatives have eliminated some wanted kidnap kingpins and destroyed their enclaves around the FCT.