By Abubakar Abdullahi
On Saturday, 13 January, a group of terrorists abducted two firm workers alongside several other travelers in Zamfara State, Northwest Nigeria.
The abduction happened at about 6:00 pm West African Time (WAT) at a federal highway along Fangaltama to Gidan-Kano villages of Maradun LGA, Zamfara State (along Gusau-Sokoto road).
Among the abducted victims were Mustapha Mohammed, one of the 2 official staff of the Zamfara Mobukar Consultancy Services limited. The marauding terrorists abducted the Gusau based staff while fixing their vehicle when the group was crossing the road.
Eyewitnesses say the terrorists were coming from Bayan Bakalori Dam located in Maradun (Known as “Bayan-Ruwa ”) and abducted an unspecified number of travelers who were also abducted at the same time on the highway.
Ahmad Bello, is among the abductees but narrowly escaped as he detached himself from the crowd after being kidnapped from his car and moved to the forest with the gang of the criminals.
He said “we were driving to Sokoto from Gusau, on reaching Fangaltama village we coincided with the armed group crossing over the road. The terrorists stopped us at gunpoint and there were several cars and trucks parked at random spaces.”
“They moved over 40 of us into the bush heading to their camp. I sneaked out of the crowd when we reached the thick forest.“ Ahmad Bello told _Smarts News._
“But other bandits took different routes with the abducted victims after the same operation. All of us could not get any help from the security operatives.” He added.
There were no gunshots during the attack, says Shehu Garba, a traveler who escaped the abduction on Saturday.
“There was also no response from armed Nigerian security operatives throughout the operation which lasted for about 20 minutes. See a lot of cars parked anyhow here and their drivers and many passengers are nowhere to be found.” Nura Direba Mafara, a commercial driver said.
It could be recalled that HumAngle reported on Dec. 27, that, another armed bandits group launched an attack on commuters for up to an hour unhindered along Danbaza – Kukamerahu federal highway in Maradun LGA.
Responding, Yazid Abubakar PPRO of the Zamfara State Police Command said there was no such report at my desk for now, but I will contact our sources in the area for confirmation. Although I know we usually have security breaches around the area and we have deployed security operatives along Gusau Sokoto federal highway.”
