Kidnapped journalist’s wife, three others regain freedom

The wife of Suleiman Abubakar, the Nasarawa state chairman of the Correpondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists and three other women abducted along Gudi-Keffi Road on Wednesday, have regained their freedom.

Samaila Usman, the Police Public Relations Officer in Nasarawa told journalists on Friday in Lafia that the victims were released by their captors at 9:45 pm on Thursday.

Mr Usman attributed the release of the victims to sustained pressure from the search party deployed by the Commissioner of Police, Bola Longe.

He said all the victims, including the wife of the journalist and wife of a former state lawmaker, were all National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members.

He said they had all been reunited with their families.

However, the chairman of the correspondents chapel told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that he paid ransom to secure the release of his wife.

According to him, the abductors called him, using his wife’s cellphone and directed him to drop the money at a certain location along the same axis where the women were abducted.

Mr Abubakar said, “I took the money to the said location as instructed and they further directed me to another location around Mandara Village to pick my wife.”

He expressed gratitude to God for sparing the life of his wife from her captors.

Gunmen on Wednesday attacked Mr Abubakar, his wife and others while they were travelling back to Lafia in the correspondent chapel’s official bus from Keffi, where he took his wife for registration at the NYSC orientation camp.

Mr Abubakar said that he and others were able to escape from the gunmen but his wife, wife of a former state lawmaker and two other women were abducted by the gunmen.

He said the abductors contacted him on Thursday demanding N5 million ransom and later reduced it to N2 million.

He, however, did not disclose how much he eventually paid and it could not be ascertained if ransom was also paid for the release of other victims. (NAN)