According to a report by Nigerian Tribune on Saturday, June 6, 2026, Nura Hassan recounted how family members and friends of the late Mustapha Maru devised a strategy to confirm whether he was still alive after bandits unexpectedly reduced their ransom demand.
Maru was abducted on May 4 while traveling from Maru Village to Anka in Zamfara State. The attackers initially demanded N50 million and five Honda motorcycles from his family before later reducing the ransom to N3 million.
Hassan explained that the sudden reduction in the ransom amount raised suspicions among family members and friends, who began to wonder whether Maru was still alive.
According to him, “They called Kabiru and demanded N50 million and five Honda (Japan-made) motorcycles. He told them that the family members had never seen such money in their lifetime. After some days, they suddenly reduced the ransom to N3 million.
“When we heard that, we were surprised and wondered if he was still alive. We had to go along with their demand and pleaded with them to give us a week to gather the amount. They called us on a Wednesday and told us that they wanted the money by the same day of the following week.”
Hassan said the family then came up with a plan to verify Maru’s condition by creating a reason that would require direct communication with him.
“We decided to adopt a method to know if Mustapha was still alive or not. We had spoken with him twice since he became a captive. We made them know that we had been able to put together N1.8 million, and another N1 million had been sent to the account of Mustapha’s wife, but her Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card was with him.
“We said we would like to speak with him so that he would tell us where the ATM card was and we would go to withdraw the money.”
The strategy, according to Hassan, was intended to confirm that Maru was still alive while negotiations for his release continued. Despite efforts by his family and the eventual payment of the agreed ransom, the abductors later informed relatives that the teacher had been killed, leaving his community in mourning.
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