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Bandits operating in Kaduna State have killed a 27-year-old man named Abba after he delivered a ransom of N16 million and three motorcycles for the release of nine kidnap victims.
A security analyst and counter-insurgency expert, Zagazola Makama, in an X post on Thursday, said the abduction took place on April 16, 2024, when bandits attacked homes in Unguwar Iya and Jere, kidnapping nine residents.
They reportedly initially demanded a N30 million ransom.
A resident, Shuaibu Hussaini, confirmed the killing, saying the incident occurred last Saturday when Abba, who had been negotiating with the bandits, went to deliver the agreed-upon ransom to the group’s leader at a designated location in the area.
“The bandits’ leader, after collecting the ransom and the bikes, tied the deceased with a rope and opened fire on him,” Hussaini said.
According to him, the motive behind the killing was revealed by one of the released victims.
“It was one of the victims who was among those released who said the bandits’ leader claimed that they decided to kill Abba for being rude to him during negotiation of the ransom.”
The brutality of the act was further emphasised when the bandits callously informed the victim’s family about his fate.
“It was when one of the family members of the victims tried to find out the whereabouts of Abba after delivering the ransom that the bandits’ leader asked the family to go to a particular location and pick up his corpse.
“The death of the deceased had thrown not only Abba’s family into mourning, but Jere chiefdom as a whole,” Hussaini added.
The Kaduna State Police Command is yet to comment on the incident.
