The four remaining members of the Ariyo family and three other residents abducted from Sagwari Estate in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been released by bandits.
Gunmen had invaded the estate opposite Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) Dutse, around 8 pm on January 7, 2024, and abducted Mrs. Ariyo, her four children, and five others including Talatu Salihu, a 500-level student of Bayero University Kano (BUK), her two nieces and two staff members of a hotel.
The kidnappers demanded N60m and N50m ransom respectively from the families of the victims.
Following their inability to pay the huge ransom, the kidnappers killed 13-year-old Michelle Ariyo, Talatu and one of the hotel staff, Akpagher Joseph Terzungwe.
After killing them, the kidnappers hiked the ransom of the remaining victims and set a deadline of Wednesday.
Sources who spoke to the Daily Trust on Sunday afternoon, January 21, disclosed that the “seven remaining victims, a female hotel receptionist, a mother and her three children, as well as two little children, had been released to their respected family members,”
He, however, disclosed that both families had been taken to an undisclosed location.
Meanwhile, the four surviving siblings of the late Nabeeha Al-Kadriyah, who was killed in captivity, have also been released.
Nabeeha and her siblings were kidnapped from the same estate as the Ariyos and their abduction led to a wave of fund-raising campaign on social media that attracted the intervention of former minister of communications, Dr. Isa Pantami after Nabeeha was killed by the bandits for the failure of the family to raise the ransoms.
Pantami announced that one of his friends agreed to fund the N50m ransom for the surviving sisters at the time.
