THE Chairman of Nasarawa State’s Akwanga Local Government Area, Safiyanu Isah Andaha, and three other abductees have been released.
A spokesman for the Nasarawa State Police Command, DSP Ramhan Nansel, confirmed the release this morning.
He stated that Andaha and the three others were released yesterday at 8:45 p.m. in Andaha village, Akwanga local government area.
According to a police official, they were released as a result of relentless pressure from unified security agencies, as against reports that a ten million naira ransom was paid.
Andaha and the three others were released and are now being treated at the Federal Medical Centre in Keffi.
Gunmen kidnapped the chairman and three others on Monday night in Ningo village, Akwanga Local Government Area.
Despite the presence of security personnel, gunmen have been operating throughout the country’s north-central and north-western regions.
Nasarawa, like Zamfara, is one of several states in northwestern and central Nigeria that have been terrorized by bandits who raid towns, kill and abduct residents, and burn homes after plundering them.
The gangs have camps in a vast forest that spans Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, and Niger states.
The country is dealing with a slew of security issues, including a 14-year Islamist insurgency in the northeast that has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced more than two million more.
Since taking office on May 29, last year, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made combating insecurity a top priority in his efforts to entice foreign investment in Africa’s most populous country.
