My Kidnap a Set Up, Says Niger Commissioner for Information

Laleye Dipo in Minna

The Niger State Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Idris, has described his abduction by unknown gunmen last Sunday night as a set up.

This is as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state has again challenged Governor Bello to secure the release of the 136 Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School girls who have spent more than 70 days with bandits like he has done for the Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Idris.

Idris, who regained his freedom on Thursday night, told people in his Babantunga town in the Tafa Local Government Area of the state, that his abductors informed him that he was getting N200m from Governor Abubakar Sani Bello every month. Idris, who was incarcerated for five days, said that he was fed with bread and water by his abductors.

According to him, those that set him up allegedly paid the gunmen and also gave them a diagram of his residence in his village and how to get him abducted.

“The gunmen insisted that they must get nothing less than N200m out of the money the governor has been giving me,” the commissioner told the gathering in a video now circulating in the state.

According to him, the kidnappers later realised that the information they got was wrong.

“I left them crying, they have regretted their action,” Idris said, adding that “I have forgiven those that set me up and the kidnappers,” Idris said before asking all his well-wishers to also do the same.

In the said video, the freed commissioner was seen in a caftan and headgear and looked hale and hearty.

Some of the sympathisers – girls and women, were seen hugging him and shouting May Allah be praised in what looked like an uncompleted building.

Idris, however, did not tell the small crowd of people how he regained his freedom but said “It is the work of Allah, they (kidnappers) don’t know this community, I have forgiven them here and the hereafter.”

The abducted commissioner who regained his freedom at about 9.30p.m. on Thursday, was dropped by his kidnappers at a spot outside Suleja Town.

A statement late Thursday night by Ado Ada, a family member expressed delight to Allah for the abducted commissioner’s safe return, saying “his release is wholly the family’s efforts and no ransom was paid.”

“The family facilitated his timely release with the divine intervention of Allah,” Ada said before expressing the family’s “sincere appreciation to community members, well-wishers and his associates for all their love, sacrifices and support during the trial period.”

Idris also disclosed that he was tied and beaten by his abductors while he was with them.

Narrating his ordeal in Minna, the state capital yesterday when he was received by the Speaker of the state House of Assembly Alhaji Abdullahi Bawa Wuse and some members of the state executive council, Idris said after sermonising to the bandits they “started giving me bread and water and untied me.”

According to him, the preaching touched the bandits to the extent that they used the only tarpaulin in the den to protect him whenever it rained while they (the bandits) remained in the rain.

He described his experience in the hands of his abductors as “traumatising” even as he said it was an experience one should not wish even his enemy.

“I was not rescued, I did not pay any ransom, I was the only victim with the bandits and they told me that they see my case as a high profile kidnapping and they planned for it very well with different people from different teams to ensure that they succeeded.”

Idris said he would have resigned from the government of Governor Abubakar Sani Bello if the government had paid any ransom to the bandits, noting that it was a decision of the executive council not to pay ransom to bandits.

“I thank the government for standing by that (not paying ransom) they were able to protect the integrity of our government,” Idris said.

In his remarks, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Alhaji Wuse, said the Assembly had passed resolutions on how to end banditry and kidnapping in the state.

In a swift reaction to the release of the Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Idris from the captivity of bandits the state chairman of the PDP in the state, Mr. Tanko Beji, said in a statement yesterday that, “ The government should use similar tactics to rescue Tegina 136 school girls like the commissioner as no one life is more important than the other.”

Beji who hailed the release of the commissioner and his return to his duty posts after undergoing medicals, said “The PDP values all lives as equal and wishes all persons, children, women, poor or rich, commissioner or cleaner be given maximum state protection as that is what a responsible government does.

“We were eyewitnesses to American government sending elite forces to Nigeria, flying over 20 hours with every military might, just to rescue its citizen from the clutches of terrorists, same attention and alacrity should be given to not just a kidnapped commissioner but all citizens especially poor children of Tegina.”