Police free kidnap victims feeding on grasses for 52days

The men of Zamfara State Police Command  has rescued 187 kidnapped victims who have been feeding on grasses in bandits’ den for 52 days due to lack of food.

The victims who were kidnapped in different parts of the state were reportedly left with no food by the bandits and they resorted to eating grasses in order to survive.

One of the victims, who gave her name as Iklima Murtala, said 17 persons allegedly died as a result of starvation.

“When they took us to their place, they gave us food for only few days and later stopped supplying the food. We were left with no option but to begin eating some eatable grasses in order to survive.

“Seventeen of us died and even when we were brought to Gusau two people also died.”

Receiving the victims on behalf of the government, the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Kabiru Balarabe, said, “The state government will continue to put pressure on the bandits until they finally give up.”

He said, “They are finding it extremely difficult now to carry out their activities because we have blocked all the ways they get food.”

Zamfara, one of the security dark spots in Nigeria is caught between herder-farmers clashes and kidnapping and banditry. In June 2019 a household was attacked by bandits seizing the man alongside his three wives and a 13-year-old son. In August the Director of Budget for the state was kidnapped while his deputy he had been travelling with was killed in the attack