Bandits have kidnapped a former chairman of the Ngeski Local Government Area of Kebbi State, Garba Hassan, alongside 12 other people.
On Thursday, Hassan and the others were passengers on a commercial vehicle when they were abducted by gunmen along the Tegina-Kontagora Road in the state.
The victims were on their way from Abuja to Kebbi State when the event occurred.
The bandits were lurking in the bush between Tegina and Kontagora town in Niger State when they stormed the road and stopped the vehicle.
The bandits subsequently led the victims into the bush from where they were taken to an unknown destination.
But police authorities in the state are yet to comment on the incident.
“I will find out and get back to you,” the spokesperson of the Niger Police Command, Wasiu Abiodun, told Channels Television.
Meanwhile, the Chief Press Secretary to the Kebbi State Governor, Ahmed Idris, said they have heard about it, and are investigating the incident.
He assured that efforts are in top gear to rescue the abductees.
Hassan was the Ngeski local government chairman between 2007 and 2015 under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but later defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He was planning to return to APC before his kidnap, it was learnt.