Bandits collected N3m, phone, victim’s cloth, then announced his death — Family of slain Zamfara FGC teacher

The Nigerian Tribune reported on Saturday, June 6, 2026, that Nura Hassan described how the loved ones of the late Mustapha Maru planned to find out if he was alive after the robbers suddenly lowered their demand for ransom.

On May 4, Maru was kidnapped in Zamfara State while travelling from Maru Village to Anka. His family was held hostage for N3 million; the ransom was ultimately reduced from N50 million and five Honda motorcycles.

Friends and relatives started to question if Maru was alive after the ransom sum was abruptly reduced, according to Hassan.

They allegedly contacted Kabiru and asked for fifty million Nigerian cedis and five motorcycles manufactured by Honda, a Japanese company. They had never seen such a large sum of money in their lives, he informed them. A few days later, out of the blue, they lowered the ransom to N3 million.

We were shocked to hear that and worried about his well-being. We begged them to give us a week to collect the money, but they insisted, and we had no choice but to comply. On Wednesday, they contacted us to inform us that they needed the funds by the following Monday.

Hassan added that after that, Maru’s loved ones devised a scheme to confirm his health by making up an excuse to speak with him personally.

We settled on a strategy to find out whether Mustapha was alive or not. Two times since he was taken prisoner had we conversed with him. Not only did we manage to raise N1.8 million, but we also informed them that Mustapha’s wife had received N1 million in her account; however, her ATM card was with him.

“We mentioned that we were interested in speaking with him in the hopes that he could locate the ATM card so that we could retrieve the funds.”

Hassan claims that the plan’s objective was to ascertain Maru’s survival status while the ongoing discussions over his release. His neighbourhood was in mourning when the kidnappers informed relatives that the instructor had been killed, despite their efforts and the ultimate payment of the stipulated ransom.