Soldiers Rescue Seven Kwarans from Kidnappers in Kaduna

A seven-year-old girl and seven others who were abducted on the Kaduna-Abuja road have been rescued by members of the joint military security outfit, ‘Operation Thunder Strike’ on Wednesday.

The victims, who are members of the Offa Descendants Union (ODU), were abducted last Sunday at about 9:30p.m. near Rijana village on the highway.

They were traveling from Offa in Kwara State to Kaduna when the bandits, said to have been dressed in military uniforms, stopped their vehicle and took them into the bush.

The victims are Aishat Bisola, 26; Ahmad Abdulrafiu, 26; Maryam Abubakar, 7; Suleiman Khadija, 25; Lawal Temitope, 23; Bala Abdullahi, 52, and Abdulrazak Okunola, 35.

Commander of the Operation Thunder Strike, Col. Ibrahim Gambari, who handed over the victims to the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, yesterday at the Government House in Kaduna, said his men swung into action following report of the incident by the police last Sunday.

 

He said one of the challenges of tracking the kidnappers was the difficult terrain surrounding the kidnappers’ hideout.

The commander said troops had to trek for about three and a half hours before reaching their hideouts.

Gambari said two AK47, 130 rounds of ammunition, five magazine, two mobile phones, three army camouflage, and the sum of N100,000 were recovered from the criminals.

He said: "We had to change our mode of operation, and as we are evolving strategies day and night, the kidnappers are also evolving their own strategies, so we are trying our best to keep up the tempo."

Gambari warned members of the  public against  travelling at night, adding that if they must travel at night,  they should turn back at the sight of any roadblock “as we are still working and have not reached the state we want to achieve."

Narrating their ugly experience, one of the victims, Aishat Bisola, said they were kept on top of rock without food for the five days they were held in captivity.

She said: “We trekked for over three hours before we reached the kidnappers' hideout on a mountain top.

"They collected all our phones and money and started demanding a ransom of between N10million and N2 million.”

The commissioner, who received the rescued victims on behalf of the state government, commended the army for the successful operation that led to their freedom.

Aruwan, while handing over the victims to the leadership of the Kaduna State chapter of ODU, said no ransom was paid to the kidnappers.