By Abubakar Sadiq Isah
There is disquiet in Abaji as the whereabouts of the wife of the former chairman of the area council, Hajiya Khadijat Yahaya Garba, who was kidnapped in Gigbe community of the council, is still unknown.
The kidnappers invaded the ex-chairman’s wife bedroom in the wee hours of Tuesday, April 19, 2016, and whisked her away along with her 11-year-old daughter (names withheld) at gunpoint into an unmarked vehicle to a yet to be identified location.
The abduction of the ex- chairman’s wife, according to political associates of the former council boss, was allegedly politically motivated.
Some people however describe it as a ‘double jeopardy’ because, the ex-chairman lost his bid in the quest to seek re-election during the April, 9, 2016, council election in the area while his wife was abducted soon after.
Shortly after the ex-chairman’s wife abduction, his father also died. Some of the former council boss aides have attributed the death to the shock he received over the kidnap of his son’s wife.
A close political associate of the former chairman, Alhaji Bako Saidu, who spoke with Aso Chronicle over the weekend, alleged that the kidnap of the ex-chairman’s wife was ‘political’, saying he saw no reason why barely a week after he lost his re-election bid, the ex-chairman’s wife was abducted.
“Left for me, the kidnap of the Abaji former chairman’s wife has a political undertone, because it was immediately he lost out the election, gunmen went and kidnapped his wife at the village. And let me tell you, even as I speak, I learnt that the woman and the 11 year-old girl are still alive,” he claimed.
Another close aide to the ex-council boss, who preferred anonymity, confided in Aso Chronicle that the ex-chairman’s wife and her daughter are still alive, though, he said members of her family have lost contact with the abductors for past three months.
He disclosed that her abductors, who had earlier demanded for N50 million ransom, later came down to N3 million, but the ex-chairman couldn’t afford the money, which contributed to delay in releasing her by the abductors.
“I am telling you confidently that the Abaji ex-chairman’s wife and daughter are still alive and in good health, somewhere in Niger State’s forest, as there was a Fulani man, who was also held captive, but escaped from their den after the kidnappers slept off and forgot to put chains on his leg and that of the ex-chairman’s wife leg,” he disclosed.
The ex-chairman’s wife’s abduction was confirmed by the Abaji Divisional Police officer (DPO) CSP David Kolo, though he declined comments on the issue at the moment.
Aso Chronicle recalls that the family of the former council boss had said that the suspected kidnappers had some months ago, demanded for a N50 million ransom to release the ex-chairman’s wife. A former FCT police commissioner, however denied knowledge of demand for ransom by the abductors.
Efforts by Aso Chronicle to speak with the former council chairman, Alhaji Yahaya Garba Gawu, were not successful, as his phone was not connecting.
When contacted, the FCT Police Command Spokesman, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, said he would make enquiries and get back to Aso Chronicle but he never did, at least at the time of filing this report, and he did not pick calls subsequently placed to his mobile phone number.
