Some Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASPs) kidnapped penultimate week while heading to Zamfara from Borno have been released.
THISDAY reported that the abducted policemen travelled in mufti and unarmed.
BBC Hausa reported their release on Friday.
Recall that the same medium had reported last week that 12 ASPs were kidnapped.
It quoted senior officials of the Zamfara State Government as saying that eight of the policemen escaped from their captors, leaving five in their custody.
According to Friday’s report, the five policemen are now in a hospital in Gusau, the state capital, for medical check-up after securing their freedom.
The report quoted an unnamed government source as saying that the five policemen were released on the basis of “mutual understanding without ransom”.
However, a separate source quoted one of the victims as saying he paid a ransom to secure his freedom.
The policemen were reported to be in the custody of the Zamfara State Commissioner of Police after their release.
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The wife of one of the kidnapped ASPs had raised the alarm, saying that her husband called for a brief moment on Wednesday to explain that they had been kidnapped.
She said that he instructed her to sell their house for at least N1 million so as to pay the ransom demanded by his captors.
However, she said that she was only able to raise N800,000.
Kidnapping for ransom has become a recurring decimal in the Northwest, especially Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna states.