Dr. Mansur Muhammed Dansadau, medical director of the Dansadau General Hospital in Zamfara State, and two other medical personnel who were kidnapped in the Dansadau emirate have been released from their captors.
According to information obtained by DAILY POST, they were freed on Friday night after being held captive for seven days after their captors were given a ransom of five million naira.
Additionally, it was discovered that the kidnappers returned the five million naira ransom a short time after it was paid.
This was confirmed to DAILY POST over the phone by Dr. Mannir Bature, Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in Zamfara State.
It continues to surprise us why the bandits returned the five million naira ransom that had been paid to them, he said.
He claims that cattle herders who are dedicated to maintaining a permanent peace with the farming villages of Dansadau intervened, secured the release of the medical professionals, and made it possible to get the N5 million the robbers had sought as ransom.
Recall that on Saturday, Dr. Mansur Muhammad and two other medical personnel were kidnapped along the Gusau-Dansadau route in the state's Maru Local Government Area.
According to a trustworthy source, some worried cow herders captured the armed bandits and handed them to their superiors while accompanying the ransom courier, Sama'ila Nagogo, to the delivery spot.
As the health professionals were highly concerned for their wellbeing, the cow herders requested that the bandits release their captives and refund the N5 million ransom.
After years of attacks and counterattacks between the townspeople and the bandits, he claimed that this was the outcome of a peace agreement reached between members of the community, livestock headers, and bandits in the region.
"I am certain that the peace agreement between the crop producers and the livestock herders surrounding the Dansadau axis is probably unknown to those kidnappers."
Communities on the axis came to the conclusion that the government was not securing the entire region, which led to the accord for peace.
The bandit colony has resided in Dansadau, which is 97 kilometres from Gusau, the capital of Zamfara State, for more than ten years.
Some of the area's forests share borders with the states of Katsina, Kaduna, Kebbi, and Niger.
Additionally, it was learned that the victims who were freed had been reunited with their families following careful medical examinations.
Remember that in the same Dansadau General hospital last year, a few ward staff members and a patient's relative were kidnapped.