Abuja Abduction: Farmer Sells Ginger to Pay Ransom for Seven Kidnapped Teens

Abuja Abduction: Farmer Sells Ginger to Pay Ransom for Seven Kidnapped Teens.

A 15-year-old boy and six teenage girls, kidnapped last week near the borders of the Federal Capital Territory, have been freed after their families paid a two-million-naira ransom. The money was gathered, in part, by selling a farmer’s ginger harvest.

The victims, all from Kuchaba village in Kaduna State’s Kagarko Local Government Area, were taken on Wednesday night. They had traveled to the nearby Gidan-Bijimi community in the FCT’s Bwari Area Council to attend a burial ceremony for a 95-year-old woman.

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A relative of the victims, Mr. Thomas Waha Sarki, confirmed their release to our publication by phone on Monday. He explained that the armed men who stormed the area had initially targeted him but missed their mark, instead seizing the seven young people.

“They let them go on Saturday night,” Sarki said. “We got them back in the Kuyeri forest in Kagarko, where we handed over the money. They had to walk for hours to get to safety.”

The path to their freedom was a difficult financial struggle for the families. Sarki revealed that the kidnappers first demanded a shocking 300 million naira. After talks that stretched from Friday into Saturday, the amount was brought down to two million.

Raising even that reduced sum required desperate measures. “I had to sell several bags of ginger from this year’s harvest and borrow the rest to make up the two million,” Sarki told our reporter. “We sent it through a go-between.”

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Sarki, who described himself as a peasant farmer, said the ordeal has been a heavy blow. “It is a painful thing. We are just trying to get by, and this payment is a big weight on us,” he said. His main relief, he added, was that all seven teenagers returned home without physical injury.

The attack has renewed worries about security in communities along the FCT’s borders, where such kidnappings for ransom have become frequent.