After 48 hours of having their victims in captivity, Kidnappers who abducted 11 people in Tunga Maje, in the early hours of Thursday, have reached out to relatives of the abductees demanding for N20million as ransom on each of them.
Tunga Maje is a community within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Disclosing this to Blueprint in a telephone conversation on Saturday morning, one of the prominent indigenes of the area, Alhassan Aliyu, popularly known as Sardauna, said the ransom demands were made earlier on Saturday to families of the abductees.
According to him, heads of the various affected families, rushed to the palace of Tunga Maje Chief same morning to inform him of latest information from the abductors .
He said though a total of 11 residents of the affected part of Tunga Maje were abducted in the wee hours of Thursday, four of them were rescued hours after by vigilantes which reduced the number of abductees to seven, comprising of two females, three male adults and an 11-year old boy.
“The Kidnappers reached out to tbe families of seven abductees in their captivity early Saturday morning and negotiations are ongoing .
“The Tunga Maje Chiefdom has also been informed and already collaborating with the affected families on how to get their loved ones out of captivity of the dare-devil kidnappers,” he said.
The FCT Police command had said it rescued five of the people abducted from Tunga Maje Thursday after a fierce gun duel.
The command, in a statement, said it received a distress call on kidnap of some persons on September 10, 2020 in Tungan Maje, a village bordering FCT and Niger state.
The statement issued by the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, said a joint team of Police operatives from the command’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Rapid Response Squad and Zuba Police division responded swiftly to the occasion.
“During a fierce gun confrontation with the heavily armed hoodlums, the Police team successfully rescued five of the kidnapped victims.
“The Command reassures members of the Public of its commitment to deploy proactive crime-fighting measures to ensure the security of lives and property in FCT,” it said.
