Some bandits operating in Niger State, North Central Nigeria, have threatened to marry off a 21-year-old lady identified as Deborah, who was abducted from Tapila, a community in the state if her parents do not pay a ransom of N1.7 million.
The lady was one of the yet-to-be confirmed number of people abducted along Tapila-Gwada road, an area located in Shiroro LGA of Niger, a 30-minute drive from Minna, on Saturday.
During the raid on the community, some residents of Tapila were able to escape shortly after they were abducted by the bandits.
It was gathered that the bandits who initially demanded a ransom of N2 million, lowered their demand to N1.7 million after speaking with the girl’s parents on Tuesday night.
They asked the parents of Deborah, the abducted woman, to pay N1 million in cash and buy a motorcycle for N750,000 for them.
“These people are asking for N1 million ransom, buy a bike worth about 750,000 and pay the person that would come to collect the cash, or else they would marry her off to one of them,” Theresa, the woman’s aunt, told TheCable.
“For over an hour they were on the phone and my brother was begging them, he was crying.”
Commenting on the attack earlier, Wasiu Abiodun, spokesman of the police command in Niger, said they were able to repel the attack and restore normalcy to the community.
“However, details of the incident are still sketchy while reinforcement has been dispatched to Gwada and normalcy has been restored,” Abiodun had said.