Six residents of Bwari Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, kidnapped the first week of 2020, have been released following payment of a ransom to the abductors by their families, Vanguard has learned.
While three of the victims were abducted on January 1, the rest were kidnapped on January 3.
Chairman of the council, John Gabaya told journalists, Monday, in Abuja that the families had to rally round to get the ransom fee as demanded by the kidnappers.
“The people who were kidnapped within the first three days of the year were released on Sunday by the kidnappers and we are thanking God today for what He has done. Two sets of people were kidnapped. The first was three and the second was also three and all of them have been released and now reunited with their families. For now, we have no incident of kidnapping,” he said.
Asked whether a ransom was paid, the council boss said; “Yes, a ransom was paid. The families had to contribute to pay the ransom for the release of their people.”
Vanguard gathered that one of the victims, the Financial Secretary of Evangelical Church Winning All, ECWA, in the area, Josephine Danlami, in her early 20s, was kidnapped on January 1 while going out of Zuma 1 Village to Bwari town, a distance of about two kilometres.
One of those kidnapped on the third day was 23-year old Isaiah Bamayi, who was working on his father’s farm at the time of the incident.
He was kidnapped while working with his father and other family members on the farm in Bwari.
While the kidnappers had reportedly demanded an N3 million ransom from Bamayi’s family, it was not immediately clear how much was eventually paid by his family.
Vanguard gathered that a special detachment of the Nigerian Police had on January 1 raided some houses in Garam, a town in Niger State which shares a boundary with Bwari, where they made some arrests.
