Bandits have kidnapped 26 women in Nigeria. They said they would release the hostages if their families gave them 130 motorcycles, Habibu Wushishi, spokesman for Nigeria's Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, said on Friday. This is not the first time such a procedure has taken place in the region. “The families have nothing left to sell to raise money for more motorcycles, which they informed the kidnappers,” said a resident of the village where one of the kidnapped women comes from.
The bandits gave the families of the kidnapped a video. In the 30-second recording, women tied to a tree beg their loved ones to deliver 130 motorcycles that were demanded in exchange for their release.
A resident of the village where one of the women calling for help comes from told Nigerian media that the families of two of the kidnapped women had provided the bandits with six motorcycles in February, but they had now demanded four more, without which they would not release the hostages. “These families have nothing left to sell to raise money for more motorcycles, and they informed the kidnappers,” he said.
Five motorcycles for every woman
The bandits are demanding five motorcycles for each of the 26 kidnapped. The average price of a motorcycle produced in China or India motorcycle – these are mainly used on African roads – is about 1.3 thousand dollars.
Desperate residents of villages persecuted by bandits called on the state governor NigerMohammed Umaru Bago, to fire the Internal Security Commissioner, General Bello Abdullahi, whom they accuse of inaction when their security is threatened.
The outrage is all the greater because the general recently boasted in interviews given to foreign media that “normalcy has returned to the state.” From the beginning of the year to the end of July, terrorists kidnapped 2,140 Nigerians in various parts of the country, the Nigerian daily Sunday Punch counted a few days ago.
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