TROOPS of Operation Hadarin Daji deployed to Shinkafi Local Government Area of Zamfara State have rescued 20 kidnap victims while on their routine patrol in the general area.
The victims comprised two females including a housewife who was abducted a week after her wedding, three children and 15 males, who were kidnapped from different parts of Zamfara and Sokoto states.
During preliminary investigation, the victims revealed that they have spent 21 to 53 days respectively in the hands of their captors while other victims revealed that they were released from the camp of a notorious bandits’ kingpin, Bello Turji due to pressure from the air bombardment and and operations of ground troops.
The victims said there are over 20 bandits’ camps in the forest they were kept.
They told journalists in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital that they were fed two times a day with food cooked by the bandits’ wives.
One of the victims, Rabi Kabiru, who is a 29-year-old newly wedded bride narrated her experience while in captivity.
“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 freed victims said their voluntary release by Turji was as a result of a reconciliation with a team of some personalities suspected to be government officials from Abuja.
All the kidnapped victims were debriefed and handed over to the appropriate authorities to be linked to their families.
In a related development, troops of Operation Hadarin Daji while conducting clearance operation on Wednesday at the fringes of Gando Forest under Gwashi district of Bukkuyum Local Government Area, neutralized a notorious bandit leader known as Dogo Gudali and members of his gang.
Gudali was killed alongside his fighters due to explosion from an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
The IED was intended for troops but detonated prematurely and killed the notorious bandit leader and his fighters.
Gudali and his gang have been terrorizing communities in Anka, Gummi, Bukkuyum LGAs and some parts of Sokoto and Kebbi States.