Bandits Sunday set free three students who were among the scores of students and staff abducted from Federal Government College, Birnin-Yauri on June 17.
The attack was orchestrated by a notorious bandit, Dogo Gide, who straddles between Niger, Kebbi, Kaduna and Zamfara states.
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The freed students were released Sunday evening alongside one of their teachers and a Chinese national, Daily Trust gathered.
“The released students were randomly picked; a female and two males. The teacher is also a male,” a security source told our reporter.
The hostages were released through the intervention of negotiators working with intelligence services, as part of a new back-channel negotiation.
Daily Trust reliably gathered that the victims were handed over to an intermediary at Kotongoro, a village in the Mariga Local Government Area of the State.
While it was unclear when the Chinese man was abducted, it was however gathered that he was kidnapped in a party of three Chinese nationals working on a mining site in Niger State.
“They collected ransom but released only two of them. However, it appears that he decided to release the last one as he was becoming infirm from long incarceration, though he (Gide) had threatened to kill him if no more money was paid,” our source said.
The source, who is familiar with the process of the hostage release, said no money was paid to the bandits as Gide decided to release the students after pleas by persons close to him, and to show commitment to a new deal being discussed between the two sides.
