Terrorists have released a video of 63 women, including a bride, her relatives and maids, that they abducted in Sabuwa Local Government Area of Katsina State last week with a threat to remarry the bride if a ransom was not quickly paid for their release.

The women were members of a wedding procession abducted by the terrorists last Thursday evening around Gamji in Damari while escorting the bride to her matrimonial home.

It was not immediately clear when the video was taken but it surfaced on social media on Tuesday with guns slung across the shoulders of three or more of the victims, including a young girl clad in a navy blue Hijab.

Some of the victims are children.

One of the terrorists was in a police uniform while another one donned military camouflage.

“Let’s see if there is anyone who can rescue them without paying ransom,” one of the terrorists in the background said in Hausa. “They are here, you can see them. You people should stop lying that they are 50, we have 63 of them with us including their driver. Look at the bride.”

The camera pans left then right revealing most of the captives and four of the terrorists.

“This is the bride, we are going to remarry her off if ransom is not paid. This is their driver,” the terrorist, who appeared to be handling the camera, said.

The victims spoke, begging their family members and the public to rescue them by paying the ransom while the terrorists pressurised them to be more audible in their request.

Bride’s family speaks

The family of the bride said the terrorists are demanding N100 million ransom for all the captives.

“They are asking for N100 million as ransom. None of us has ever seen that amount of money, so I told them point-blank that we don’t have such money,” Haruna Abdullahi, an uncle to the bride, told PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday.

He said the terrorists also told him that they shot and sent the video to dare the state governor, Dikko Radda, for vowing to rescue the victims.

“They said they did that video to show the governor how serious they are. They said the governor vowed that security agents would rescue them. I personally appreciate him (Governor Dikko Radda) for showing his concerns because he came here to sympathise with us and promised that they would be rescued,” Mr Abdullahi said.

He said aside from the bride, eight of his sisters and nine daughters were among those abducted.

Another person, who only gave his name as Zubairu, said his wife, six children and 13 relatives were among those abducted.

We have resorted to praying because that is the only way out for us,” he said.

Kidnap for ransom is commonplace in the northwest and parts of north-central Nigeria. The kidnappers use the money they collect as ransom to buy more weapons and finance their terrorism activities.

The far northern part of the country has been under the siege of terrorists since at least 2011 which has seen hundreds of thousands of people killed and millions displaced. The crisis has affected all strata of the society and affected all sectors of the local economy.

Culled from Premium Times Nigeria