Bandits tied me up without food for 48 hours. Niger commissioner

The Niger state Commissioner for Information, Mohammed Idris Sani, has recounted his ordeal in the hands of abductors.

Recall that Idris was abducted on Monday morning, August 9, after gunmen broke into his residence at Babban-Tunga, a community off Abuja/Kaduna highway. They were said to have attacked his wife and baby before whisking him away. He regained his freedom on Thursday night, August 12.

Speaking to newsmen after he was received by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Alhaji Abdullahi Bawa Wuse and some members of the Executive Council, Idris said he was made to sleep in the rain for two days before his abductors decided to give him their own trampoline to shield him from the weather.

“I went through a lot of trials in their hands, a lot of dehumanizing things. It is not an experience that I will pray for my greatest enemy. It was dehumanizing, humiliating and degrading. They picked me from my house after breaking all the doors. They took me to a no man’s land in the middle of nowhere. I was there exposed to the rains for 48 hours with neither food nor water given to me, with my hands and legs tied. Instead of them breaking me, I started breaking them. They started giving me bread and water, they untied me and they began to show concern. They gave me the trampoline they used to cover themselves when they sleep and allowed me to use it to cover myself in the rains. They came with an intention that they would get N200 million from me or my life and they left with no money and with my life intact. The people that kidnapped me, please don’t curse them because before I left them I told them I have forgiven them. They promised that they would quit banditry because of me. They don’t know this village but they were hired from Zamfara State to kidnap me. They said monthly, the Niger State governor gives me N200m and if I give them less than N200m, I should be killed. I have forgiven the kidnappers and those people that hired them. I am proud to be part of this government. The first thing I did when I came out was to send a text to my Governor to thank him for having the strength of heart not to allow any state machinery to intervene in my release because we decided in council that the Niger state government is averse to the payment of ransom to bandits for any situation, for any case. I thank the Government for standing by its word. They were able to protect the integrity of our government. I prefer to lose my life than to take the government to the washes and we succeeded. If the government had intervened in my case, I would have resigned because that means we would have been going back on our word. Nobody paid any ransom, I was not rescued, I was released. It is just a miracle. I believe that it is a miracle, God touched their hearts to release me to reunite with my family.”