Bandits Abduct ’50 Wedding Guests’ Along Sokoto-Zamfara Highway

Armed bandits have abducted no fewer than 50 wedding guests travelling along the Sokoto-Zamfara road.

Those abducted include Telephone Marketers at the popular Bebeji Plaza in Gusau.

They were returning to Gusau after attending a wedding of their colleague in Sokoto State when the incident happened between Tureta-Bakura road around 6 PM on Saturday

The vehicles conveying the wedding guests were a Toyota coaster bus belonging to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), a Gusau Local Government Secretariat staff vehicle and two other private vehicles.

Secretary of Union of Communication, Zamfara State, Ashiru Zurmi, while narrating the incident to newsmen in Gusau on Sunday said one of the vehicles conveying the guests developed fault at Tureta in Sokoto state and it was fixed by an automobile mechanic after about 40 minutes.

He said the bandits ambushed the vehicles after they repaired the faulty vehicle along Tureta-Bakura road and over 50 persons were abducted.

Zurmi noted that more than 20 persons later managed to escape, while some of them sustained various degrees of injuries.

“It happened that their motor developed fault at Tureta and they got a mechanic; for about 40 minutes, he assisted them and got the motor repaired; they started coming to Zamfara but within the Tureta and Bakura axis, the kidnappers ambushed them; over 50 people were abducted but Alhamdulilah over 20 people escaped,” Zurmi said.

He confirmed that 30 members are currently in captivity and the abductors have contacted the members of their Union, confirming that they are with them.

“We have identified thirty members that are still in captive, luckily today they used phones of those captives (about five of our members) to call us; they only notified us that they are with them.”

According to him, no ransom has been demanded yet by the bandits

The Secretary of the Union also suspected the involvement of informants which he said might have informed the kidnappers about their movement

“Definitely something like that happened; we have that in our minds that there was an informant that gave the information to the bandits to attack them because it was just only them, other passenger cars were passing but they did not care about them, they only concentrated on the coaster bus that has Zamfara Government number.”

Zurmi appealed to relevant authorities for urgent intervention and to ensure safe return of the abductees.

He also give a 48-hour ultimatum for security agencies and government authorities to ensure the rescue of the abductees

Police Authorities in Sokoto State are yet to confirm the incident.