Abductors of the two children who were kidnapped last month at Dan-Ali village in Katsina State yesterday told their parents that they had been killed during an operation of the Air Force. Their father said instead of releasing them after collecting N2.5 million ransom, the captors led him to his children’s graves.
Anas Idris and Ibrahim Idris were abducted around 1.30am on May 27 during a raid on their residence. The kidnappers had demanded N20m ransom which was later settled for N2.5m. Their father, Alhaji Idris Garba Dan Ali, in a chat with our correspondent yesterday, said: “I went to meet them (abductors) at Leletu village of Dan Musa Local Government as agreed. They told me to wait for a while. Later, six of them came and after collecting the money, they asked me whose release I sought.
“They told me that few days ago there was an Ariel bombardment by the Air Force and my ward was killed during that bombardment. They told me to follow them to verify it by seeing his grave, but I vehemently refused and told them that since he has been killed, I left it to God and may his soul rest in peace.”
Also speaking Alhaji Amadi, Anas’ nephew, said: “The situation was unfortunate, after collecting the money; they began to shoot sporadically and pleaded with us to bear the fact that the abductees had been killed by an ariel attack by the Air Force. They said all the victims in custody died as result of that. Only a girl survived it. The only surviving person was a lady from Gidan Gima village as they claimed.” An officer of the Air Force, on condition of anonymity, debunked the allegation by the kidnappers, saying that they might have killed the victims and just blamed it on the Air Force operations in the forest.