National security adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has handed over rescued Zamfara State residents to their families.
He declared that the federal government will intensify its offensive against bandits and terrorists across the country, vowing that “there will be no haven” for criminals holding Nigerians hostage.
He warned against the politicisation of security challenges facing the nation.
“Let us take politics out of these challenges; the pains of victims shouldn’t be turned into a tool of partisan politics,” Ribadu warned.
Ribadu made the remarks in Abuja while presenting 128 civilians rescued from bandits in Kaura Namoda, Zamfara State.
The victims, comprising men, women, and children, were freed in two waves of military and intelligence operations earlier this month.
Let me be unequivocally clear: this work will continue. There will be no respite in our operations. There will be no haven for those who terrorise our citizens. We will hunt them, we will find them, and we will bring them to justice – or they will meet the same fate as the many kingpins already neutralised by our forces,” Ribadu said.
The NSA praised the military, police, and intelligence community for their role in the rescue, describing their efforts as a “crushing blow to the networks of terror that seek to undermine our peace.”
He assured Nigerians that President Bola Tinubu’s government would sustain kinetic and non-kinetic measures in the fight against insecurity.
“This government has recently reunited mothers with their children, husbands with their wives, and communities with their loved ones.
Each rescue is a victory for the Nigerian people,” Ribadu noted.
Beyond the rescue, he emphasised that victims would receive trauma care and psychosocial support before reuniting with their families, insisting that “healing is as important as the rescue itself.”
Ribadu urged citizens to remain vigilant and support security forces with timely information, saying their resilience and cooperation were key to defeating criminal networks.
He added that the rescue was not an isolated event but part of a broader security strategy designed to dismantle bandit groups and restore peace across Nigeria.
Earlier, the national coordinator of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, Maj. Gen. Adamu Laka explained that the victims were freed during coordinated security operations carried out in two phases earlier in August.
According to him, the first group of victims, 42 individuals comprising 14 males, 27 females, and a toddler, were rescued on August 14. The second group, comprising 88 individuals of 34 males and 54 females, was freed on August 19.
“Unfortunately, among the second group, we lost one of the children due to illness, likely from the fatigue they suffered while in captivity.
“In addition, one of the women gave birth prematurely after the rescue, and the baby is currently receiving medical attention, ” Laka said.
He noted that since their rescue, the victims have been under the care of the ONSA, where they received psychological support, medical treatment, and rehabilitation.
“With their recovery process ongoing, we are now handing them over to the Zamfara State government for reintegration with their families and communities,” the Laka added.
The Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Tanko Sununu, commended the government and security agencies’ efforts in rescuing the victims.
Sununu, however, advised the freedom victims to see their freedom as an opportunity to strive for their future, urging them to embrace education.
Narrating his experience in the hands of bandits, one of the rescued victims, Abdulahi Salisu, said he spent 42 days in captivity, mostly in hunger.
“I was in captivity for 42 days, mostly in hunger, until we were rescued. The experience was very terrible. We thank God and our security operatives for coming to our rescue,” he said.
