Gunmen on Thursday night kidnapped eight women and a man in a residence in Kuchi community in Munya local government area of Niger state, a family source told Daily Trust on Sunday.

Alhaji Salisu Afakallah said the abducted women were nursing mothers and wives of his younger brothers, while the man is a cousin.

According to him, the gunmen, who he said were many, had forced the gate of the family house opened at about 11:30pm and rounded up everyone in the house.

He said some of the family members had assembled for a wedding nearby, adding that the assailants took advantage of the ceremony to carry out the raid.

He said the gunmen had lined up the women during the attack, while also shooting two male relations who, according to him, are currently receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital.

The assailants, he also explained, killed a villager they encountered on the way out of the community after the raid.

“They called on Friday to demand N800 million ransom as condition for releasing those abducted,” he told our correspondent in a telephone interview.

Alhaji Salisu said the family has no means of raising the amount demanded by the abductors, noting that “all our efforts to beat down the amount have proved abortive”.

According to him, the concern of the family members and the entire community were the little children in captivity.

“Some of the children are barely two months old, we don’t know the situation which they are in and we are very worried,” he lamented.

Alhaji Salisu said although the combined team of military and police personnel were deployed to the area on Friday, no appreciable progress has been made in the rescue mission so far.

He appealed to the state government to intervene by ensuring the release of those in captivity as there is no way the family members can raise the ransom money demanded by the gunmen.

The acting chairman of the Council, Mr Joshua Musa, confirmed the development but said security operatives are on top of the situation.

He said from the security reports available to him, all the abducted persons were women, while one person was shot during the attack.

The state Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Abubakar Dan-Inna, said he was yet to be briefed of the development, while promising to reach out when he gets the details.

•Sourced from Daily Trust report

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