Gunmen kidnap 12 police officers along Zamfara-Katsina road
Gunmen have reportedly abducted about 12 police officers attached to the Borno State Police Command along the Katsina-Zamfara axis.
Security sources told BBC Hausa Service that the officers, who are Assistant Superintendents of Police, ASPs, were travelling to the North-western states on an official assignment when the incident occurred.
The sources said the officers went missing between Katsina and Zamfara, before reaching their destination.
The source added that one of the officers who managed to escape from captivity reported the incident.
The wife of one of the police officers who spoke with the media outfit said that her husband contacted her asking her to sell off his house to raise N1million allegedly for a ransom.
She said: “My husband called me on Wednesday around 8 pm to confirm the incident and briefed me on his situation.
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“He asked me to mortgage our house and send at least N1million to him. He said that if I didn’t raise the amount we would all be in trouble as I may not even hear from him again. He then dropped the phone.
“We are yet to gather the money. We later received another call from another officer among the kidnapped officers saying that they had been asked to give N800,000 each.
“We have been restless since then, seeking the intervention of God.
“There are eight of us whose husbands have fallen victim, but one died prior to the kidnap.
“But her children, about five of them, are still here with us at the barracks since.
“We don’t even know our fate because no one is doing anything. We are only dependent on God and appealing to the Nigerian government to intervene in the matter,” she pleaded.
The Borno State Police Command has directed BBC’s inquiry to the commands where the incident was believed to have happened.
When the BBC contacted the Zamfara and Katsina commands, the spokesperson said they had not been briefed about the incident.
