Thirteen employees of Zaria Local Government in Kaduna State have been abducted by bandits while travelling in a bus from Zaria to Giwa.
Giwa local government is one of the hotspots of banditry in Kaduna and is over 100 kilometres from Zaria.
The incident happened on Monday when the local government workers were travelling to Giwa to condole with one of their colleagues who lost his father.
Among the kidnapped victims is the eldest son of the district head of Gyellesu in Zaria, Sulaiman Zailani, who is also the Ɗandarman Zazzau.
Mr Zailani is a cousin of the speaker of the state House of Assembly, Yusuf Zailani.
Speaking to Newsmen, a sister of Mr Zailani, Hajiya Dalhat, said the bandits were yet to contact the family for ransom.
“We received the news of the unfortunate event on Tuesday when the driver, Mallam Hamisu, came to tell us in Zaria. Because there is no network to communicate with them, we are still waiting to hear from them.”
How the travellers were kidnapped
The driver of the bus conveying the workers said the bandits released him so he could inform the families of the victims of their abduction.
He said the bandits took all the13 people in the bus into the forest.
According to Ms Dalhat, the driver said the travellers had asked for directions from some people along the road but was misled into taking a “wrong turn.”
“The people deliberately misled us to the bandits,” the driver was quoted as saying.
The spokesperson of the police in the state, Mohammed Jalige, was not available for comment as his phone number could not be reached at the time of filing this report.
