2 Kidnapped NPC Workers In Taraba Regain Freedom

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Two staff of the National Population Commission, NPC, kidnapped aroundt 3:45 PM on Friday January 10th in Dananacha village of Gasol local government area of Taraba state have regained their freedom.

Mr. Gadafi Ali Shehu, an ad-hoc staff of the commission and Zaradine Isa an administrative officer were part of a team of demarcators working under NPC’s routine enumeration area demarcation (EAD) exercise in preparation for the national census within the area.

Narrating their experiences to our correspondent at the office of the Commission in Jalingo, one of the victims Mr. Gadafi Isa said they were kidnapped in Dananacha at gunpoint by two men riding on a motorcycle.

Ali said the kidnappers attacked them while they were going round Dananacha for the exercise and forced them to climb on the motorcycle, covered their faces and took them to an unknown destination.

The NPC staff said they were manhandled by the kidnappers during their stay in the kidnappers camp, but unfortunately could not give a description of the said hideout.

Briefing journalists in his office in Jalingo over the incident, Taraba state commissioner, National Population Commission Mallam Sani Sule Sale said the two NPC workers were released by the kidnappers following a negotiation between the commission, the parents of the victims and the kidnappers.

“It was on the whole, a very long, tedious and stressful process, sometimes promising, at other times very frustrating indeed, even after an agreement was reached for the two kidnap victims to be released on Monday, the kidnappers reneged at the last minute, necessitating further discussions, these yielded the required dividend and our colleagues were released last night. Sale said.

The police public relation officer PPRO Taraba state command DSP David Misar said the police had deployed the anti kidnapping unit to Dananacha since the report of the incident.

Misar could not confirm at the point where the two NPC workers were released by the kidnappers, he further said the police were working tirelessly to tackle the rate of kidnapping activities in the state.

It will be recalled that the kidnappers who were having field days in Jalingo by making high profile kidnapping activities were dislodged by hunters from Ardo-Kola and Karim Lamido local government areas of Taraba state.

The kidnapping activities have since been relocated to Gasol local government area particularly in Dananacha village, over 200 kidnapping cases have been recorded in about two months.