Bandits who kidnapped Zainab Yusuf Mohammed and her two sisters in Kaduna State have threatened to kill them including her newborn baby if their family fails to pay N50m ransom in two days.
The siblings were abducted at their family house in Lema community in Mando area of Kaduna, opposite the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) on July 17, 2022, while taking care of their sick mother.
Zainab who was pregnant gave birth in the kidnappers’ camp on 2nd August, 2022.
The family of the captives disclosed that they have been able to raise N6.5m out of the ransom demanded.
The victim’s brother, Kabir Yusuf, while speaking with journalists in Kaduna on Sunday, September 25, on behalf of the family, appealed to the government and good-spirited Nigerians to come to their aid.
“We have only been able to raise N6.5m, which was rejected by the bandits. I begged my sister’s abductors and told them we have sold everything we have to raise N6.5m, but, they (bandits) rejected it,” he said.
“My sisters lamented to me on Sunday that they were being mistreated, and that the bandit commander wants 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. They started crying and I broke down weeping too.
“Now, the disturbing development is that, on Sunday, I pleaded with them to release my sisters and the new baby, that we have only been able to raise N6.5m, but they started insulting me and told me that if we do not bring N50m in the next two days, they will kill my sisters and the new baby.
“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 do not 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 in a wheelchair because of their abduction.”