By Adesina Soyooye
Honourable Abba Anas Adamu, a former Member of the House of Representatives and a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, had no thoughts of death on this fateful day when he left for a meeting of his Party in Abuja. He travelled in the company of his friend, Ali Tukur Gantsa, another ADC chieftain.
They were looking forward to their meeting in Abuja. For Honourable Adamu who specation had it that he was warming up for Jigawa State Governorship race, the trip was important. It would make him decide whether to run or not.
But it was never to be. They never made it to Abuja. In a country ravaged by banditry, terrorism, kidnapping, where no one is sure of anything, where mourning has become the order of the day, Adamu and Gantsa fell victims of what has become the everyday life of Nigerians.
They were abducted along the road, on their way to Abuja.
Their abductors, on making contacts with their families, asked for tye sum of N200m as ransome. This was negotiated down to N50 million which was delivered by Adamu’s son and his driver.
Little did they know that by the time they delivered the millions of Naira, Adamu had already succumbed to the harsh conditions under which he was held.
Family sources said he was both hypertensive and asthmatic. While in the custody of his abductors, his health deteriorated. His medications were probably not with him. According to sources, Gantsa tried to console him to appeal to him to have faith, to hold on. But the stress was too much for his health.
He passed on, an information the abductors did not disclose to the family until the sum of N50 million was delivered to them.
When it was delivered, instead of releasing Adamu, it was his lifeless body that that they saw.
A mourning member of his devastated family said: “They were abducted last Wednesday en route to Abuja from Kano for a political meeting.
“Abductors took them to a nearby bush in Jere, demanding a ransom of N200 million. After prolonged negotiations, the sum of N50 million was agreed upon.
“Anas, who suffered from asthma and hypertension, had been without his medication for several days, a situation that worsened his condition amid the fear and stress of captivity.
“Despite Ali Gantsa’s efforts to reassure him, Anas’s health deteriorated, leading to his death. The abductors initially withheld this information, but a statement by one of them suggested Anas had died.”
Another family source said that “the abductors released Gantsa and showed Anas’s son his father’s corpse.”
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