Relief as Five Abducted Abuja Sisters Regain Freedom

Kingsley Nweze in Abuja

Five of the six sisters of the Al-Kadriyar family who were kidnapped by bandits in the Bwari area of Abuja recently have regained their freedom last night.

It could not however be ascertained whether the girls were rescued by security operatives or were released after their family paid ransom.

An uncle to the girls, identified as Kabiru Aminu, who disclosed the news of their release, posted a video on his X handle, @kabiru_aminu, showing the sisters and their relatives jubilating.

“#Najeebahandhersisters are home right now, someone please wake me up!” he tweeted.

“#Najeebahandhersisters. These girls are strong,” he added in a follow up tweet.

The six sisters, aged from the early teens to 23, were taken hostage in the Abuja suburb of Bwari along with their father, Mansoor Al-Kadriyar, who was later released to raise the ransom.

The gunmen released their father, asking him to go get N60 million as ransom for the release of her daughters before Friday, January 12.

His 21-year-old daughter, Nabeeha, a final year university student, was later killed as a warning that the huge ransom be paid.

A former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, had revealed that his friend had volunteered to pay the remaining N50 million out of the initial N60 million the bandits demanded.

The former minister added that as much as he does not support paying ransom to criminals, he had resorted to soliciting for the ransom after the kidnappers killed one of the sisters.

Pantami also blamed security agencies for failing to track calls and other digital imprints of kidnappers after the completion of the synchronisation of Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) with National Identification Numbers (NINs), which was done in 2022 to help to shore up the nation’s security structure and identify the criminals terrorising Nigeria.