Ben Agande Kaduna.

Controversy has erupted around the circumstances surrounding the release of the three students abducted by kidnappers along the Kaduna Abuja highway.

Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna.

While the police claimed in a statement that the abducted students were released due to I tensive pressure by police operatives, family members of the abducted students said they paid ransom to secure the release of their loved ones.

The police claim attracted the attention of an aide of the president, Bashir Ahmed who took to Twitter to gleefully announce that “The Kaduna State police command has rescued three students of Ahmadu Bello University, ABU Zaria abducted on Monday along Abuja-Kaduna Highway”.

But in a reply to this tweet, Sadiq Ango dismisses the claim, saying it took the family members forty-eight hours to negotiate the release of the abducted students.

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“Lies,” he said in reply to the tweet. “It took us 48 long hours of negotiations with the kidnappers to secure the release of our sister to us, NOT the police. Ransom was paid in full as negotiated with the three families involved” he added.

Earlier in a statement signed by Yakubu Sabo, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Kaduna State police command said “the Command wishes to state that, on the said date – 26th August 2019 at about 1850hrs, Armed Men in Military Uniform intercepted some commuters near Masari Village along Kaduna Abuja Expressway; opened fire on the vehicles, in the process kidnapped six persons. However, due to the prompt response of the Police and other security agents to the scene, three people were later released by the hoodlums due to intensive combing within the general area”.

He said the story being peddled in the social media about the kidnap was a “gross exaggeration”.

“the story being circulated by social media is a gross exaggeration and misrepresentation of fact aimed at causing more fear in the minds of the public,” he said.

Vanguard