No fewer than 44 persons mainly travellers have been abducted along the Birnin-Gwari – Kaduna Highway.
The incident took place between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.
Chairman of the Nigerian Road Tranaport Workers Birnin Gwari branch Danladi Duniya confirmed the abduction of the travellers to newsmen on phone in Kaduna the state capital.
According to him, the travellers that were abducted on Wednesday were traveling in three Golf vehicles from Birnin-Gwari to Kano.
He said each of the vehicle was conveying not less than 7 passengers each, totalling 21 persons.
The chairman also disclosed that yesterday (Tuesday) about 17 people were kidnapped along Kwanan Dutse in the same vicinity. “Those ones were traveling in a Sharon bus.”
Danladi Duniya said the incident on Tuesday involved a Sharon bus carrying many passengers.
He also said the victims were “on their way to various destinations when the kidnappers attacked them and carried them into the bush.
“But today (Wednesday) around 8am another batch of 21 people were abducted near Labi village along the same Kaduna-Birnin Gwari road.
“Today’s victims affected three of our vehicles and each contained 7 passengers making a total of 21 persons which include males and females going to Kano for various business activities,” he said.
He also said apart from the three golf cars, and Sharon people in a trailer and a tanker were also stopped and abducted by the bandits.
“I can’t confirm the number of those inside the trailer and Tanker. But those 21 were taken from vehicles belonging to our members” he said.
He then called for the quick intervention of the authorities concerned, saying the bandits still operate with impunity along that route, in spite of the reported deployment of soldiers and police to the area.
The abduction is coming barely over a week after the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai officially opened a military operation base in Birnin-Gwari to tackle abductions and killings in the area.
The Army Boss had also instructed the soldiers deployed to the area to wipe out the bandits within three weeks, charging them to take the battle to the criminals in their hideout.
But since Buratai gave the charges, no fewer than 10 persons have been killed, with many others abducted in the villages and the highway within the local government area.
Birnin-Gwari had been under attack by bandits for some time now, leading to the death of many people and travellers along the Birnin Gwari highway.
11 soldiers posted to the area to battle the bandits where also ambushed and killed recently.
When contacted Kaduna State Police Public Relations officer ASP Aliyu Mukhtar said he needs time to get the details of what actually transpired in the area and how many people were involved.
” Let me get the details i will call you back.” He said.