The Katsina State Government may have traced 20 of its indigenes to Burkina Faso, where they were allegedly sold into slavery by armed bandits who abducted them.
Reports indicated that “modern-day slavery” thrives in Burkina Faso, a former French colony located in the Sahel region of West Africa, with human merchandise exchanging hands through various middlemen in parts of northern Nigeria, Benin Republic, Republic of Niger and Chad.
Competent sources told Cornerstone News identification of the current location of some of the kidnap victims was part of the fall out of recent efforts by Governor Aminu Bello Masari, who led a team of government officials and security agencies to Rugu forest, to dialogue with a cross-section of the bandits and kidnappers.
According to sources,
“The victims were kidnapped in Kankara Local Government Area and sold to a woman in Cotonou who in turn sold the victims to another slave Marchant in Burkina Faso.”
Special Adviser on Drugs, Narcotics and Human Trafficking to Masari, Hamza Borodo, declined to give further details, but said, “yes, I will be travelling to Burkina Faso this weekend to negotiate their release, but I won’t give you details until I return.”
Until the dialogue initiative, eight LGAs of Jibia, Batsari, Safana, Dan-Musa, Kankara, Faskari, Dandume and Sabuwa, had become synonymous with banditry and kidnapping, along with the killing of residents in communities.
Incidentally, the areas share boundaries with the Rugu forest, said to transverse through parts of the neighbouring Niger Republic, Katsina, Zamfara and Kaduna states.
