No fewer than 18 female kidnapped victims were, on Wednesday, rescued by the troops of the Nigerian Army from their captors while handing them over to the Katsina State Government.
The landmark success was coming days after 55 wedding guests who were said to be escorting a bride home along the Damari town in Sabuwa Local Government Area of the state were kidnapped by suspected bandits.
According to Brig.- Gen. Oluremi Fadairo, the Brigade Commander, 17 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Katsina, the soldiers took a rescue operation to the bandits’ enclaves at Yan-Tumaki and Dan-Ali forests, adding that the troops successfully engaged the terrorists in a gun battle, after which they successfully rescued the victims.
Fadairo, who thereafter handed over the victims to the State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Dr Nasiru Mu’azu, stressed the readiness of the Nigerian Army to continue to work to restore permanent peace in the state.
The commander charged the personnel under the Brigade to sustain such rescue operations to ensure that all other kidnapped victims were freed.
Responding, Mu’azu restated the maximum commitment of the government to restore permanent peace in the state, adding that Governor Dikko Radda has invested hugely in the security sector, adding, ” The investments have been yielding positive results.”
The commissioner commended the military and other security agencies for their courageous service toward restoring peace in the state and urged them to maintain the tempo.
He, therefore, advised the bandits, kidnappers, and other criminals to repent immediately or face a myriad of unpalatable consequences.
The commissioner equally assured security agents that the government was making necessary efforts to rescue the women kidnapped on their way to a wedding ceremony in Sabuwa Local Government while also advising the people, especially in the front-line local governments, to avoid night travel for their safety.
The commissioner later presented N100,000 to each rescued victim on behalf of Radda.
The rescued victims, all female, were kidnapped at different times from Karaduwa, Sayaya, Dangani and Wawar-Kaza communities of Matazu, Musawa and Kankara Local Government Areas.
One of the victims, Firdausi Bishir, a 13-year-old JSS two student, said that she was abducted from Sayaya and had spent 91 days at the bandits’ den.
She thanked the Almighty Allah, who, in His infinite mercy, the soldiers were able to rescue them, and also the governor for giving them the money to establish businesses after returning to their homes.