Bandits release footage of travellers kidnapped from NSTA bus pleading for help

Bandits who kidnapped travellers being conveyed in a bus belonging to the Niger State Transport Authority (NSTA) have released a video showing them pleading for mercy.

The bandits who bore sophisticated weapons were masked and have demanded the sum of N500m for all the victims who are close to 30 in number.

It was gathered that the bandits left behind a woman and her baby while they went away with other passengers in the attack that occurred in Yakila village in Rafi Local Government Area of the state on Sunday.

The passengers were said to be heading to Minna, the state capital from Kontagora when the incident happened.

Confirming the incident, the Director-General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, Mallam Ibrahim Inga, said he was on his way from Kagara for the revalidation of his APC membership in the company of the Chief of staff when they met the scene where the bandit operated.

Inga and his colleague said they met a woman with her child who was left by the bandits who told them other 18 passengers on the bus have been taken away.

He said:

“The only thing I can tell you now is that we have rescued the woman and her baby and she is in the vehicle with us and we are on our way to Minna. She told us that the bandits blocked the way and went away with the other 18 passengers.

“No government official was among those kidnapped. I can’t give more than that for now because the woman is traumatised and we cannot be asking her too many questions for now.”

The bus which had the number 8 tag was driven by one Isa Dangana

Names of those contained on the driver’s manifest include:

Aisha ya Fati

Mama Jummai

Mama Larai

Hauwa Abdlsm

Asmau Abdlsm

Mama Halima

Aunty Ladidi

Hassan Ashiru

Baba kararami

Sadiq abdlsm

Hassana abdlsm

Abba abdlsm

Nafisa Adamu

Saadatu Danjuma

Salamatu Danjuma