Perm Sec, son abducted; scores killed in Niger

Gunmen kidnapped Dr Ibrahim Garba, Permanent Secretary, Niger State Ministry of Transport, and his son on Friday, Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Monday Kuryas, said in Minna on Saturday.
He said that father and son were kidnapped from their home in Zungeru in Wushishi Local Government Area after a wedding ceremony had been held in Garba’s house.
The police commissioner said investigation had begun into the abduction and assured that the perpetrators would be tracked down.
“We have since deployed armed security personnel to the area to rescue the victims,’’ he said.
Kuryas appealed to residents to provide timely and useful information to security personnel deployed across the state to ensure the arrest and prosecution of criminal elements.
“All we require from members of the public is to assist us with credible information on movement of dubious characters in their midst for necessary action,’’ the police commissioner said.
Meanwhile, Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello has condemned the abduction.
Sani-Bello, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Mrs Mary Noel-Berje, in Minna on Saturday, also condemned the murder of scores of villagers by bandits, describing the attack as “evil and inhuman.”
The governor also decried the barbaric and atrocious acts of bandits in Shiroro and Munya Local Government Areas, where scores of villagers were slaughtered and burnt while others abducted, food bans and houses razed.
He said with the recent turn of event in the acts of banditry, there was an urgent need for total overhauling of the strategy of the security aparatus.
Sani-Bello said that the security operatives could curtail the situation and called for more support by the public with useful and timely information.
He prayed for the repose of the souls of those killed, quick recovery of those injured and the safe return of those kidnapped.
The governor reaffirmed his administration’s unrelenting efforts to address insecurity in the state.