Inside story of how terrorists released Zamfara hostages after 22 days in captivity

Ado Aleru, a known terrorist who operates around Tsafe Local Government Area of ​​Zamfara and the border with Katsina, has released 74 of the 91 hostages he abducted from Wanzamai community after 22 days of captivity.

They were released on Friday evening after paying the ransom.

PREMIUM TIMES exclusively gathered from a top local source who was involved in the negotiations, however, two men were killed by the terrorists as they tried to escape from the camp.

The source, who is a local leader, asked not to be named for security reasons, and said that contrary to original reports that 85 people were kidnapped, 91 people were actually kidnapped.

“We have secured 74 people now,” he said by phone Saturday morning. “Now there are 15 of us with the bandits and we are still talking to them, while two of our friends were killed a week ago,” he said.

The freed hostages have been taken to Tsafe and Wanzamai hospitals to receive medical attention because “they looked pale”, he added.

PREMIUM TIMES reported on April 7 how the residents were abducted from their farms by terrorists.

Negotiations

The source said they immediately abducted the residents, community leaders swung into action and contacted some terrorists in the area before they realized that their people had been abducted by Mr. Aleru.

“When he finally called, he made several requests, including accusing us of helping the military kill his boys,” he said.

According to the source, the terrorists complained bitterly about the presence of soldiers in the community where they were operating.

He said two days before the abduction, Mr. Aleru’s four fighters were shot dead by soldiers and the motorcycles they were riding were confiscated.

“When some of his boys said that we should influence the government to withdraw the leader of the group of soldiers, we tried to explain that we could not do that. Some terrorists were not serious about withdrawing the soldiers but others were, so first we tried to convince them that it was out of our hands. Our village chief also spoke to the state military commander when he came to sympathize with us, but we did not ask them to withdraw the soldiers because they are doing their best,” he said.

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He said that Mr. Aleru asked them to bring everything they had and they paid N30,000 for each abductee as contribution taxes and when they also got help from people, they collected N3 million.

“When we took the N3 million, he said he would keep it with him for the motorbikes the soldiers took away and the loss of four fighters. He asked us to move in with his boys. In front of us, he called some of the boys holding the captives and told them to collect “something” from us.

“We came back and sold our property. Some of us sold our farms and houses to get another N3 million for the boys. We took him there and they asked us to come back home. Yesterday (Friday) we were called to come and collect our people, but when we went to the main road, we saw 74 instead of 91. They said that they killed two people and that they are holding 15 because some bandits are demanding the money given to them. they were not evenly distributed,” he said.

“If we’re lucky, he’ll ask his guys to release the remaining 15 people, but if we’re not, he might ask us to raise another buck for them,” he said.

When the state police authorities said that only nine people were abducted, he said that they had left the police in the hands of God.

“I, too, have six nieces and a nephew among the abductees, so how could they say that only nine people were abducted?”

Zamfara State Police spokesman Mohammed Shehu did not respond to calls and SMSes sent to him on the release of the hostages.