No fewer than 15 people were kidnapped within the last three months in Kaltungo Local Government Area of Gombe State, the paramount ruler of the Kaltungo chiefdom, Saleh Mohammed, an engineer, has said.
He disclosed this in his palace at the weekend while receiving a former member of the House of Representatives, Hajiya Fatima Binta Bello, who visited to sympathise with him and the people of Kaltungo over the incident.
- ‘Chinese nationals destroying Nigeria’s bushes, forests, water areas’
FG warns against encroaching on national monuments
The traditional ruler said the kidnapping had become unbearable for people in the chiefdom.
He expressed worry that the kidnappers sometimes abducted people who could not even pay the ransom being demanded.
“The situation is becoming unbearable for our people. For instance, from December 2020 to date, about 15 people were kidnapped and ransoms have to be paid before they were eventually released.”
The monarch, therefore, called on security agencies to stand up to the occasion by protecting the lives and property of innocent citizens.
Earlier, the ex-lawmaker, who represented Kaltungo/Shongom federal constituency from 2011 to 2019, rebuked the federal government for failing to address the rampant banditry and kidnapping across the country.
Speaking shortly after commissioning the furnished Model CBT JAMB Centre at Kaltungo, she called on the people and neighbouring communities to mobilise themselves into vigilante groups and collaborate with security agents to tackle the criminals, stressing that security is the business of every person.
