People in Chacho village in the Wurno Local Government Area of Sokoto State felt both relief and sadness when a young bride-to-be and her bridesmaids were liberated after suffering roughly 49 terrible days in the hands of bandits.
Local sources say that the victims were finally freed after their families painfully raised a ransom of N10 million, three brand new motorcycles, and other stuff. This shows how much instability in rural areas costs in terms of both people and money, according to Vanguard.
Before the kidnapping, Chacho village was full of happiness as the wedding preparations reached their climax.
But only 24 hours before the ceremony, armed bandits broke into the town in the dark and took the bride and her pals away.
A family member who didn’t want to be named said that the whole town was shocked and scared by what happened, because the locals were defenseless and couldn’t do anything about the highly armed bandits.
The source says that later intelligence showed that the kidnapped bride and others were kept in one of the bandits’ hideouts deep in the Sububu Forest, which is in the Isa and Sabon Birni local government regions.
Criminal gangs that terrorize towns in Sokoto, Kebbi, and Zamfara states have long been known to use the large forest that stretches into Zamfara State and the Niger Republic as a hideout.
A relative of the victims said that after they were rescued, they were brought to an undisclosed facility right away for medical attention because of security concerns and the fact that the freed prisoners were in bad shape.
The family member said that the protracted detention was because the family couldn’t satisfy the robbers’ continually shifting ransom demands right away.
“We live in a village.” The insider said, “We don’t have that kind of money in our homes or banks.” “We sold our things, livestock, and valuables, and begged kind people for money before we could get it.”
He said that the talks went on for seven weeks, costing the family 10 million in cash, three motorcycles at about N1.8 million apiece, and extra food that the kidnappers wanted.
Ahmed Rufai, the Police Public Relations Officer, said that the command had not yet received all the information on the incident but vowed to work with the divisional office to get updates. Nigerians are still calling for long-term answers to the country’s growing security crisis.
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