Police reunite 35 kidnap victims with families in Niger

The Niger State Police Command has successfully reunited 35 kidnap victims — comprising 16 women and 19 children — with their families after weeks in captivity.

The victims were rescued while being relocated by their abductors from Birnin-Gwari and intercepted across various locations in Niger State. Commissioner of Police, Adamu Abdullahi Elleman, represented by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Investigation), Ibrahim Adamu, handed over the victims to the Chairman of Rafi Local Government Area, Ayuba Usman Katako, during a formal event in Minna.

The rescue operation, which began on July 3, was launched following credible intelligence that armed bandits were moving captives out of Birnin-Gwari. The first group — five women and six children — was intercepted in Agwara, while a second group of four women and seven children was rescued along the Mekujeri-Tegina road.

A third group was found being transported by a commercial driver, Yusuf Abdullahi of Birnin-Gwari, who is currently under investigation by the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) to ascertain his possible links to the kidnappers.

The victims were placed under police care where they received essential support, including food, bedding, psychological counseling, and deradicalization services in partnership with the Niger State Government.

In response to the growing concern of stigma faced by female survivors, the state’s Ministries of Humanitarian and Women Affairs, in collaboration with the Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) and the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN), organized a one-day sensitization workshop. The initiative, supported by the Ford Foundation under the “Muslim Opinion Leaders for the Prevention of Gender-Based Violence in Northern Nigeria” project, trained 40 stakeholders on preventing stigmatization against rescued victims.

FOMWAN’s State Amira, Hajiya Hauwa Kulu Abdullahi, urged service providers and officials to show empathy and help reintegrate survivors into society without prejudice. Malam Hassan Aliyu Karofi, dRPC’s Director of Partnership and Communication, emphasized that the training was in direct response to the recent rescue of 27 long-held female victims, some of whom returned pregnant or with children.