A couple of Nigeria have put on hold their wedding celebrations after gunmen kidnapped at least 29 guests going back home from the ceremony.
A survivor said that the groom was shattered by the attack.
Jafar Kanoma, a friend of the groom, stated the wrongdoers had mounted roadblocks and then began shooting in Zamfara state.
Kanoma further said, “One of the gunmen was chasing me, firing and asking me to stop. But I did not stop, and God helped me to flee.”
He ran for many kilometres through the bush before he reached the police checkpoint, leaving him “tired and speechless”. He fled without any gunshot wounds.
One of the cars in convoy got a brake fault, said Kanoma, forcing guests to stop in a town, Tureta in Sokoto, for the repair of the car.
It was when they resumed their journey that the trap happened, just 2.4 miles (4 km) from Tureta near a village, Bimasa.
The victims, who work as phone dealers in Gusau, work in the same company as the groom.
The north-western Zamfara state’s police spokesperson, Muhammad Shehu, stated that security forces were deployed to look for and rescue the hostages while stating the event was tragic.
The couple was not among those who were abducted. The groom, Jamilu Umar, along with his wife, Basira Abubakar Atiku, were able to escape the attack as their vehicles drove away before the ambush.
As per the sources, the kidnappers have called the families of the victims and market officials utilising the captives’ mobile phones, stating they had 29 people in captivity. The kidnappers have also demanded ransom.
In a speech to observe the 23rd Democracy Day of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari admitted the rising violence in Nigeria by various armed groups, stating his government is taking every measure to address it.
Over 3,500 people have been killed during the first quarter of this year, and several others have been kidnapped.
The government wants to restrict the payment of ransom to make abduction less lucrative.
