A former chairman of the Bandits Prosecution Committee in Zamfara State, Mr. Sani Abdullahi Shinkafi, has narrated a heartbreaking story of how a kidnapped woman lost her newborn baby in the hands of armed bandits.
The shocking incident was revealed during an interview with Channels Television on July 30, 2025. Shinkafi explained that in February, 53 people were abducted from the Banga community in Maru Local Government Area and held for five months. The bandits demanded ₦1 million ransom per person. The first 18 were released after the payment of ₦18 million, while the remaining 35 were still in captivity. The community eventually raised the balance by selling farmland and receiving donations.
The negotiators, after facing military reluctance to assist, proceeded to the bandits’ hideout to deliver the ₦35 million. Shockingly, the bandits kept demanding more — petrol, and later, 35 Android phones. After all these were provided, the bandits confessed that the remaining hostages had already been killed.
Among the disturbing revelations, Shinkafi mentioned that three women gave birth while in captivity. One of the women lost her baby in a horrific manner, and then died from shock.
In his words, “One of the women who delivered in the camp, wickedly one of the armed bandits smashed the baby’s head on a stone, and his skull busted and he died instantly. Then the mother of the baby, also the depressed mother, also instantly had a cardiac arrest and died after 30 minutes when they killed her baby.”
