Three days after abducting over 40 workers, including 39 children, at a farm in Mai Ruwa community, their abductors are now demanding N30 million as ransom.
They also stated that they want to have a dialogue with the owner of the farm where the victims were abducted. They vowed not to release the captives until either of the demands are met.
The victims are from different villages in Faskari and Funtua local government areas of Katsina State.
PREMIUM TIMES gathered from a source at the area that the terrorists invaded the farm Sunday afternoon and took away over 40 workers working on the farm. The number included 39 children who could not run when the terrorists struck.
A source, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons said the terrorists had reached out to some of the parents of the abducted children on Monday, demanding N30m to free the children.
“The owner of the farm was not around. It (the farm) was under one of his staff. When the victims were abducted, they (terrorists) reached out to some parents for the ransom but they suddenly called to say they would not accept anything less than the mentioned ransom or direct access to the owner of the farm.
“They said they had made their investigations and they found out that the owner of the farm is very rich. The situation now is they’ve remained adamant to only speak with the owner of the farm,” he said.
He, however, could not confirm if the owner of the farm had agreed to speak with the terrorists or not.
When contacted, the police spokesperson in Katsina State, Gambo Isa, said the command was aware of the abduction.
Mr Isa said the command has been making efforts to rescue the abducted victims.
He, however, did not give the exact number of those abducted during the attack.
“Yes, we got the report and we’re working to rescue them. I’ll get the full details of the abduction including the exact number of the captives as sent to me by the DPO and get back to you,” he said through the phone.
Communities in the North West states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto and Kebbi as well as Niger in North-central have been witnessing a series of terrorist attacks for years.
The terrorists have been making life difficult for residents, especially farmers.
A PREMIUM TIMES investigation revealed how terrorists made farmers abandon their farmlands or forced them to pay farming levies to access their farms.
