The dreaded terrorists who kidnapped 85 people in Wanzamai village in the Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State have refused to release the captives.
They failed to release their abductees despite collecting an additional N3millon ransom.
Abubakar Na’allah, a resident of the locality, said the terrorists sent a message requesting an additional N3million for the abductees’ final release.
He stated that each of the households was urged to contribute an additional N35,000 in order to reach the N3million target.
According to Na’allah, N2,975,000 was realised and given to the bandits in the hope that they would free the abductees. He lamented, however, that the victims had not been released two days after the payment.
Speaking with PUNCH, he said, “We paid additional amount of N3million as demanded by the bandits two days ago but unfortunately, they refused to release our people. We don’t know what to do now because we have sold almost all our belongings, including farmland. We are calling on the appropriate authorities to please come to our aid and rescue our people who are mostly women and children.”
“We are equally calling on the international community and other non-governmental organisations to help us.”
SaharaReporters had earlier reported that the terrorists had demanded an additional N850,000 from the community to buy two motorcycles after collecting the sum of N1.7million as ransom.
The 85 people were kidnapped by the terrorists barely four weeks ago in the community.
Although the victims’ ages were not specified, it was learnt that they included women and children.
The victims were in the bush fetching firewood at about 8am when the terrorists rounded them up and marched them away into the forest.
It was learnt that the abductors had earlier collected N20,000 from each of the 85 kidnapped victims, mostly women and children, for a total of N1.7million.
However, the state Commissioner for Security, Mamman Tsafe, a retired Police DIG, insisted that the state government would not withdraw the military personnel deployed to the Wanzamai village, being a condition given by the bandits to release the abducted persons.