Bandits Demand Additional N850,000 To Purchase Motorcycles To Free 85 Abducted Zamfara Residents

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The bandits that kidnapped 85 people in Wanzamai village of Tsafe Local Government of Zamfara State have refused to release the abducted victims and have demanded an additional N850,000 from the community to buy two motorcycles.

It was gathered that the abductors had demanded N20,000 on each of the 85 kidnapped victims, mainly women and children, totaling N1.7 million.

A member of the community, Haruna Sani, said on the phone that the bandits have again sent a message, demanding an additional N850,000 to buy two motorcycles.

According to him, the terrorists have directed each of the families of the 85 kidnapped victims to pay an additional N10,000 so that the amount of N850,000 could be raised.

According to Sani, “You know that the bandits have earlier subsidized the ransom from N50 million to N1.7 million, but now they have suddenly changed their minds and asked us to pay an additional N850,000.”

He pointed out that the bandits were looking for additional money because their two motorcycles had been destroyed by military personnel during a fight.

“The military personnel has destroyed two motorcycles belonging to bandits in an operation, and the bandits want the Wanzamai community to pay for the damaged motorcycles,” he added.

According to him, the people of the community had gathered the sum of N1.7 million as earlier demanded by the bandits and were about to go to their camp when they got the latest demand.

Meanwhile, the state government has said that it would not withdraw the military personnel from Wanzamai village as requested by the bandits as one of the conditions for them to release the kidnapped victims.

The state’s Commissioner for Security and Internal Affairs, DIG (retired) Mamman Tsafe, said the state government would not be intimidated by bandits to change its security arrangements.

“We will not be intimidated and no pressure from the bandits will make us change our security arrangements,” he said.

Meanwhile, the people of the village staged a peaceful demonstration on Tuesday to register their annoyance with the alleged plan to transfer the leader of the military personnel deployed to Wanzamai to fight banditry.