Kogi Man Begs Govt To Rescue Abducted Ailing Wife, Child

A 36-year-old man, Abdullahi Sheriff, whose wife and two children were kidnapped from his residence last Friday evening in Zango community in Adavi local government area of Kogi State, has called on the state government and security agencies to rescue his wife and one child.

The kidnappers dumped the second child in an uncompleted building.

Sheriff said his wife had just been discharged from the hospital with his five-year-old son when the abductors struck.

LEADERSHIP recalls that gunmen invaded the residence of Sheriff at Zone 12 , Zango, a boundary community between Adavi and Lokoja, the state capital on Friday at about 8.45 pm, shooting sporadically before gaining entry into the house.

They took away his wife and his child.

Narrating his ordeal to newsmen yesterday, Sheriff said he was a struggling man and had just obtained a loan to complete part of his house due to pressure from his landlord.

Sheriff said he moved to the new house on 18th December last year with his family and barely settled down when the kidnappers came.

According to him, everything went smoothly until last Friday evening, when he rushed out to get food items for his family and received a call from one of his wives to stay away for a while because gunmen were shooting sporadically in his compound.

Sheriff said he rushed to the vigilante office in Zango but was asked to report the matter first at the police station, which he did.

He said he was shocked when the police said they could not do anything because their vehicle was not available.

His words, “I raced back to the vigilante office, and they told me that they could not act except their leader gave them an order. I was there for more than 30 minutes trying to call their leader to no avail, while the kidnappers were still in my house, shooting.

“At last, some soldiers came, but it was too late. My senior wife, Abidat Sheriff, 35, who was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, was abducted with my daughter Zainab Sheriff, who is one year, eight months old and my five-year-old son, Mubarak. Mubarak was abducted naked,” he lamented.

“The soldiers traced the kidnappers into the forest. I followed them, and we saw torchlights on the mountain, which made their leader urge them to pursue vigorously. But suddenly, we started hearing another sporadic shooting at our back, and we paused to trace the source and discovered that it was another group of vigilantes firing their shots.

“This distracted us as the soldiers could not trace anything, which made them to suspend the pursuit till the following day.

“However, when I waited in the morning without seeing anyone, I went with friends inside the forest to comb the area for over five hours before the police called me to come home and give my statement.

“Later, some people drew our attention to an uncompleted building on the bush path where they dumped Zainab, my one-year and eight-month-old daughter, who had cried in that area infested with dangerous snakes,” he said.

Sheriff pleaded with the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to provide a helicopter and drones to trace the kidnappers and rescue his wife and child, who are still in captivity.

The police public relations officer (PPRO), CSP William Ovye Aya, had yet to respond to calls and messages sent to his mobile phone.