The National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, has handed over 128 rescued kidnap victims from Zamfara State to their families in Abuja.
The victims, comprising males, females and children, were rescued by security forces in two different operations in Kaura Namoda in Zamfara State.
Ribadu said the victims would be treated for trauma and helped to settle down in their communities.
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Speaking at the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, Abuja, Ribadu pledged that those who kidnapped the victims would be hunted.
He also appealed to critical stakeholders in the country to refrain from politicising the country’s security situation.
“Let us take politics out of security challenges”, Ribadu said, while commending security forces drawn from the army, Air Force, police, DSS and others for the rescue operations.
He said the victims will be treated for trauma and helped to settle down in their communities, insisting that the perpetrators will be brought to justice.
Earlier, the National Coordinator, National Counter-Terrorism Centre, Adamu Laka, while presenting the victims to the NSA, disclosed that one child was lost among the victims due to illness during the incident.
Laka, a Major-General in the Nigerian Army, explained that the victims were freed during coordinated security operations carried out in two phases earlier in August.
According to him, the first group of victims — 42 individuals comprising 14 males, 27 females, and a toddler — were rescued on August 14.
The second group, comprising 88 individuals—34 males and 54 females —was freed on August 19.
He said since their rescue, the victims have been under the care of the ONSA, where they received psychological support, medical treatment and rehabilitation.
“With their recovery process ongoing, we are now handing them over to the Zamfara State Government for reintegration with their families and communities,” Laka added.