Three health workers in Zamfara State who were kidnapped last Saturday along the Gusau Dansadau highway in Maru Local Governmen, have been released.
The health workers including Muhammad Mansur, a medical doctor, in charge of Dansadau General Hospital Dansadau, in the Maru council area, were reportedly kidnapped after being ambushed.
Premium Times also reported that the bandits returned a N5 million ransom paid for the release of the health workers.
The kidnap victims were released on Friday morning, July 1, after cattle herders who are committed to a lasting peace with the Dansadau farming communities, intervened and secured the release of the health workers as well as stopping the payment of the N5 million ransom the bandits demanded.
A traditional ruler, Mustapha Umar, said the concerned cattle herders escorted the ransom bearer, Sama’ila Nagogo, to the delivery location where they caught the armed bandits, and took them to their superiors.
Umar disclosed that the cattle herders asked the bandits to free the suspects and return the N5 million ransom, and they did that.
He said: “The ransom was returned to the owner, Mamman Tsafe, whose children were among the kidnapped victims.
“We learned that the bandits are popular in the area and probably not aware of the peace truce entered between the crop farmers and the cattle herders in the Dansadau Emirate.”
The residents of Dansadau entered a truce last year with cattle herders, including armed bandits, in the district. The truce was reached after years of tit-for-tat attacks in the area.
