The family of a woman in Kaduna State, who gave birth in captivity, has sought financial assistance from the Federal and Kaduna State governments as the bandits demanded N50 million ransom to release the nursing mother and her two sisters.
The family said the three sisters were kidnapped on July 17, 2022, in Mando, in the outskirts of Kaduna, at their family house, where they were tending to their sick mother.
Their mother, who could walk unaided before their capture, has now been confined to the wheelchair due to the trauma of her children’s abduction.
Journalists were told that the eldest of the sisters, who was heavily pregnant when they were kidnapped, had given birth in captivity without recourse to medical or human care for both mother and child, as they were subjected to harsh whether conditions, eating and drinking whatever was available in the bandits’ den.
Recounting the family’s ordeal, father of the nursing mother and her sisters, Malam AbdulWahab Yusuf, said the bandits broke into their Mando home about 1:05 am the fateful day.
He said: “My two daughters used to take care of their mother who is sick. That day, their elder sister, who was pregnant came from her husband’s house to look after her mother. The bandits broke into the house, I ran out as I jumped the back fence but my three daughters were kidnapped and taken to the forest.
“They asked for N140 million, but now they have reduced the ransom to N50 million. The family has been adversely affected by the trauma. My wife, who was able to walk unaided before the incident, now uses wheelchair. A surgery was recently carried out on her. I have not been myself, I cannot sleep, once it is night, I don’t know how I feel.”
Also speaking, the elder brother of the kidnapped sisters, Kabiru Yusuf, said: “Since the kidnap, we have been negotiating with them. The bandits initially demanded N140 million but we pleaded with them that we are poor people, so they reduced it to N100 million and they later reduced it to N50 million last Saturday and threatened that if we don’t have the N50 million ready, we should not call them again.
“My sisters lamented, yesterday, that they were being maltreated, adding that the bandits’ commander want to leave the camp and may not return until after a while, so we should talk to them.
“But I told them that we have sold everything we have but what we raised is not tangible and we don’t have anything to sell again and they started crying and I broke down weeping too.
“We are appealing to the Federal Government, Kaduna State government, charity organisations, philanthropists and well spirited individuals to assist us in securing their release. We don’t want anything to happen to them, if anything happens to them only God knows what effect it would have on our mother, who is now on wheelchair.”
