By Hamilton Nwosa(Head, The New Diplomat’s Polling, Research & Data desk)
The Zamfara State Government has claimed another achievement over the release of ten kidnapped victims, allegedly without any ransom.
The victims, who had been in captivity for roughly three months and two weeks, said they were abducted in the Gwaram community of Talata Mafara Local Government Area of the state.
Among them are three men, including the father of one of the abducted Jangebe school girls, four women and three children.
The Commissioner for Security and Home Affairs in the state, Abubakar Dauran, said they were rescued without ransom through the peace initiative of his administration.
He explained that the state government would continue with the peace dialogue, noting it is paving way for lasting peace in the state.
Dauran added, “We are witnessing another achievement in security where ten people were rescued, those that were kidnapped at Gwaram in Talata-Mafara Local government among whom is the father one of the abducted Jangebe school girls,” he said.
“I believe if it is not dialoguing that we are doing in Zamfara State, we cannot definitely rescue these victims. We are still with this dialogue and with a non-kinetic approach, we must continue to do it because of the situation we have in Zamfara State. We know it’s critical; but we are achieving a lot of success.
“Recently, we rescued 279 Jangebe school girls; before that we had recovered about 20 sophisticated weapons from the son of Buharin Daji which he voluntarily surrendered with a different caliber of live ammunition.”
One of the rescued victims said they spent 14 weeks in the forest with their kids, at the mercy of the cold weather.
The lady, who identified herself as Raliat, said the bandits offered them rice and beans to cook during the two-week period.
“We spent 14 weeks in the forest with all this cold weather, we were outside with our kids there is nothing to cover our body with. They came looking for Ubankasan Gurau, but he was not around, they met his father and killed him, they went to his uncle’s house and packed all the family members that were around,” she said.
“They said they pity our kids but still, they did not release us. None of our kids died; it’s God that saved us. They gave us rice and beans, we are the ones cooking, and they have pot there. They use to give us oil and salt with Maggi but later they stopped.”
