OPERATION Hadarin Daji troops stationed in Zamfara State’s Shinkafi Local Government Area were able to free 20 kidnapping victims while on a routine patrol in the area.
Among the victims were two women, including a housewife who was kidnapped a week after her wedding, three children, and 15 men. They were taken from various locations in the states of Zamfara and Sokoto.
In preliminary investigations, the victims disclosed that they had been held captive for 21 to 53 days, respectively. Other victims disclosed that they had been freed from the camp of a notorious bandit kingpin, Bello Turji, as a result of pressure from airstrikes and ground operations.
According to the victims, they were held in camps in forest where they were held by about 20 bandit.
They told newsmen in Gusau, the capital of Zamfara State, that the wives of the bandits fed them twice a day with food.
A 29-year-old newlywed lady named Rabi Kabiru, one of the victims, described what it was like to be held captive.
“It happened one night inside my husband’s house, I was one week in marriage and I was abducted for one month.
“I was kidnapped inside my matrimonial room, I was with my husband, we were lying down inside the living room when my husband suspected that kidnappers were around. So he hid himself behind the door and escaped through the fence, though the kidnappers saw him but he had already escaped,” she said.
When asked whether ransom was paid before her release, she said, “No, though others were told to pay N100,000 and my parents were contacted. Initially they were told to pay N2 million but when they called the kidnappers back, their number was not connecting for almost a month.”
The victims who were freed said that Turji’s voluntary release of them was the consequence of a reconciliation with a group of individuals who they believed to be Abuja government officials.
All of the abducted victims were briefed and given to the proper authorities so that they could connect them to their relatives.
In a related event, troops of Operation Hadarin Daji yesterday neutralized infamous bandit leader Dogo Gudali and members of his gang while conducting clearance operations near the edges of Gando Forest in the Gwashi region of Bukkuyum Local Government Area.
An improvised explosive device (IED) explosion claimed the lives of Gudali and his men.
The infamous bandit commander and his men were slain when the IED, which was meant for troops, exploded before it was supposed to.
Gudali and his gang have reportedly been terrorizing communities in Anka, Gummi, Bukkuyum LGAs and some parts of Sokoto and Kebbi States.
