KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) – Gunmen in Nigeria have kidnapped at least 87 people, including women and children in Kaduna state, residents and police said on Monday.
Kaduna police spokesperson Mansur Hassan confirmed the incident in Kajuru Station village on Sunday night but could not give a figure of those missing.
Tanko Wada Sarkin, a village head, said 87 people were taken. “We have so far recorded the return of five people back home who fled through the bush,” he told Reuters by phone.
Kidnappings by criminal gangs demanding ransom payments have become an almost daily occurrence in Nigeria, especially in the north, with authorities seemingly powerless to stop them.
(Reporting by Garba Muhammad in Kaduna, Hamza Ibrahim in Kano and Ahmed Kingimi in Maiduguri; Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Ros Russell and Toby Chopra)
