Armed bandits have abducted six butchers and animal dealers while returning from Magajin Maitarko market along Dogon Santsi forest in Gusau Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

Narrating the incident, one of the victims’ close relations, Ishiaku Umar, said that the bandits blocked Gusau – Dansadau road on Friday evening.

He said: “The bandits shut one of them, and the other is now in critical condition. The bandits contacted them through the mobile number of the victim.”

Umar explained that the bandits demanded N2 million ransom for the injured person, but did not say anything about the other five persons.

“The bandits warned us that, if we delay in paying the ransom money, they will kill him because they can’t handle his gunshot wounds”

“Our abducted brother pleaded that we should sell his house and give them the money to release him, and we are currently struggling to sell the property to secure his release from his kidnappers,” he said.

When contacted, one of the leaders of animal dealers in the state, Malam Aminu, confirmed the incident, stressing that their members are four out of the kidnapped victims.

The Zamfara State Police Command spokesperson, DSP Yazid Abubakar, said the command is yet to receive a report about the incident officially and called on the general public to report such incidents to the nearest police station for a swift response.

“Some people are not reporting to us. We have placed security measures for rescuing kidnapped victims successfully. We had several instances where people came to us after unsuccessful trials and we later bailed them out,” he added.