Kidnappers Cut 16-year-old Girl’s Hand – Community

The Nikyob Development Association (NIDA) in Jema’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State, has said that the cutting off of the hand of a 16-year-old girl, Endurance Haske Sabo, last Friday, was done by kidnappers.

Media reports said the teenager’s hand was cut off because she refused forced marriage, but the community, including her family members, has dismissed such a report.

NIDA, which challenged such narratives, said last Friday’s attack on the teenager in the Goska community, Jema’a Local Government, was a kidnapping attempt.

Speaking yesterday, the Association’s National President, Comrade Manasseh Mamman Tukson, said the incident was a kidnapping attempt, not a forced marriage as was widely reported.

Earlier outlets had framed the assault on the 16-year-old girl Endurance Haske Sabo as a case where suspected armed men demanded the teenager be given in marriage after her family rejected the proposal.

According to that account, the assailants approached the victim’s mother on the family farm in Kaninkon Ward, repeatedly insisting that she hand the girl over for marriage before later ambushing the family and dragging the teenager into the bush, where her hand was cut.

However, Comrade Tukson disputed this narrative, saying the attackers left the victim unconscious after believing she was dead, and that they intended to abduct her rather than force marriage.

He praised the professionalism of youth and local security operatives, especially the Army, in responding to the incident and facilitating the arrest of suspects linked to the attack.

Tukson commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, and the Minister of Defence, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, for what he described as progress in reducing insecurity in the state, but urged security agencies to pursue the investigation vigorously so that all perpetrators are apprehended and prosecuted.

He appealed to residents to remain calm and let the investigation unfold, warning against vigilantism, and admonished journalists to verify facts before publication to avoid misleading narratives.

Also in an interview, two family members, including the teenager’s grandmother, Mrs Hannatu Yusuf, and older sister, Faith Japhet, who were present at the farm when the incident occurred, also dismissed the forced-marriage storyline.

They said the mention of marriage by assailants was a distraction tactic to hide their true motive, which they indicated was to kidnap the teenager.