Posted by Rashida Hamisu, a 17-year-old girl, and five others were rescued from a kidnappers’ lair by the Bauchi State Police Command.
During the exchange of gunfire, the Command also managed to eliminate one of the possible kidnappers.
Joint Task Force and local hunters sent to Toro, Tilden Fulani Division reportedly conducted the rescue operation on Wednesday at around 4:30 p.m., raiding the kidnappers’ strongholds in the nearby Angwari and Saya mountains.
According to a statement issued by the Command’s spokesman, SP Ahmed Mohammed Wakil, on Thursday, the combined operation team exchanged gunfire with the kidnappers, wounding many of them before sending them fleeing in confusion.
The rescued victims were given medical care at Toro General Hospital and then reunited with their loved ones, the report said.
Wakil has stated that all resources are being exhausted in an attempt to capture the remaining abduction ring leaders.
A Toyota bus registered to the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) was reported stolen on October 30, 2023 in Bauchi. The police have since located and recovered the vehicle.
There was “intelligence at the Command disposal on 30 October 2023 at about 2100hrs indicating that some group of hoodlums numbering about CSP Makama Magaji, Officer in charge of the Anti Kidnapping Unit (AKU), and his team of detectives responded quickly to the tip and intercepted the Toyota Bus at the Maiduguri bypass.
The alleged robbers are exiting the state car and going in an unknown direction. However, when they saw the police, the criminals fled.
“Thereafter, during an interview with the driver “Sani Ahmed,” he revealed that, on the same day at around 2033 hours, he returned from official duty in Azare, Katagum LGA, Bauchi, to Bauchi town, where he went to drop one of his colleagues, Mohammed Mohammed, at his residence situated at new GRA, Bauchi metropolis.
After stopping to buy some Akara (Kosai) along the GRA road, the bus driver was accosted by unknown gunmen who demanded he take over driving duties and threatened him with a handgun when he refused. He panicked and drove to a nearby bypass, where the police were waiting to help him. The perpetrators on the run have been the focus of efforts to identify and apprehend them.