Gunmen Kidnap Prominent Farmer, Wife in Kaduna

Gunmen Kidnap Prominent Farmer, Wife In Kaduna

Sarah Bulus Kaduna

Gunmen on Monday night abducted Mr Sunday Bage, a prominent farmer in Pari village in the Chawai chiefdom of Kauru Local Government of Kaduna State.

Also picked along with Sunday was his wife, Listu.

A source from the village told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the gunmen stormed the victims’ residence around 10.00 p.m. and started shooting in the air.

They, thereafter, broke into the victims’ residence and dragged him and his wife outside.

The source added that Sunday, popularly known as “Creation”, and his wife, were forced to kneel down while the house was ransacked.

They were later taken to the bush through the Kuyambana- Kizachi-Chiwo-Kamaru route toward Kwall in Bassa Local Government of Plateau.

“They took Sunday and his wife away. They are in the bush,” a village elder told NAN on Tuesday.

A family source said that the abductors are asking for N5 million ransome.

“Yes, the abductors have reached us. They are asking for N5 million. That is the situation now,” he said.

Abduction of people has become common in Pari and environs with the Rev Father of St. Monica Catholic Church, Ikulu-Pari, getting picked several times.

In one of such attacks, the cleric, Rev Emmanuel Shekari, lost his cook to the gunmen who shot him when he insisted on protecting his master.

Fr Shekari has since fled the area over security concerns.

NAN also reports that the area has become a harvest zone for kidnappers with the gunmen taking advantage of the rural nature of the settlement to pick people at will.

Efforts to speak with men of the Operation Safe Haven stationed in the neighbouring Kiffin village were not successful, but a top security source in Damakasuwa confirmed the incident.