Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
KATSINA, Nigeria – Armed bandits holding a retired major general who once served as the nation’s top defence spokesperson and his wife have issued a hard set of demands for the couple’s freedom: release three of their fighters and hand back livestock seized by security forces. The conditions were made public in a short video that surfaced online on Saturday, June 6, 2026, one week after the high‑profile abduction.
The captives are retired Major General Rabe Abubakar, a former Director of Defence Information (DDI) at the Defence Headquarters, and his wife. They were abducted on the afternoon of Saturday, May 30, 2026, along the Marabar Musawa–Kafinsoli road near Zakin Baure village in the Matazu Local Government Area of Katsina State. The couple was reportedly travelling to a wedding in a red Peugeot 504 when gunmen blocked their car, fired shots, and forced the two into a nearby forest. The driver managed to escape despite sustaining gunshot wounds. Security operatives later recovered the abandoned vehicle and moved it to the Matazu Divisional Police Headquarters.
The video, which lasted just over four minutes, shows the retired general and his wife sitting together in an outdoor bush setting. It was the general’s wife who delivered most of the appeal. Speaking in Hausa, she called directly on Katsina State Governor Dikko Umar Radda and the chairmen of five local government areas – Matazu, Musawa, Kankia, Charanchi and Kusada – to intervene. “We are appealing to the government at all levels, from the state government to the local governments within this area,” she said, according to a transcript of the footage.
She then listed the captors’ conditions. The abductors want three of their associates, identified as Sani, Aminu and Nasiru, released from state custody. According to her, two of the men were arrested in Jikamshi, Katsina State, while the third was taken into custody in Kano State. The captors also insist on the return of livestock – cows and sheep – that they claim were seized from them during security operations. “Three of their children, Aminu, Sani, Nasiru and others, were arrested, and their livestock – cows and sheep – were also seized. They are requesting the release of both the children and the animals,” the general’s wife said in the video.
The retired major general himself spoke only briefly. In measured tones, he avoided any direct threat but made the abductors’ position clear. “They have given their ultimate conditions to bring peace to this region,” he said. “If they are given their rights, if they are given cooperation, they have explained to us that they are ready to ensure absolute peace in this area. We are appealing to the government to ensure that peace is established. Reconciliation is best. Reconciliation is what brings goodness”.
Multiple security and media sources have linked the abduction to a known bandit commander, Kachallah Muhammad, who is said to operate across parts of Katsina State. According to reports, Muhammad established direct contact with the general’s relatives shortly after the kidnapping and conveyed the same demand for a prisoner‑livestock swap rather than a conventional ransom payment. Local intelligence sources also told reporters that military task forces had recently arrested several high‑ranking bandit commanders during clearing operations across northern Katsina, a development that likely stiffened the kidnappers’ resolve to demand the release of their detained members.
The Marabar Musawa–Kafinsoli road where the couple was seized has gained a grim reputation for highway attacks, kidnapping and armed robbery. Residents have repeatedly raised security concerns along that corridor, but the abduction of a high‑profile military figure has brought fresh attention to the persistent insecurity that plagues rural Katsina. The area is part of a wider northwestern zone where banditry has flourished for years, often driven by competition over resources, local grievances and the vast forested hideouts that make sustained military clearance operations extremely difficult.
Public reaction to the video has been sharply divided. Some civil society voices have argued that no government should negotiate with criminals, warning that swapping prisoners for civilians would only encourage more abductions and strengthen the hand of armed groups. Others, noting the age and status of the retired general, have called for dialogue, pointing out that the abductors themselves framed the demand as a path toward “absolute peace” in the region. One particularly unusual detail in the wife’s appeal was her claim that the abductors insisted they themselves had been “actively securing the area” and considered their activities a form of community protection. “These individuals play a vital role in protecting this area,” she told the camera. “Since the primary duty of government is to provide security for its citizens, we urge authorities to cooperate, sit down with them and find a lasting solution”.
As of Sunday, June 7, 2026, neither the Katsina State Government nor any federal security agency had issued an official statement addressing the video or the demands made in it. The Defence Headquarters had earlier acknowledged the abduction and said efforts were ongoing to secure the couple’s release, but no operational updates had been provided. The silence from official quarters has allowed speculation to grow about whether the government is considering any form of negotiation or plans a military rescue.
The abduction of a former director of defence information – a man who once stood at a podium speaking for the entire Nigerian military – is a deeply symbolic blow. For the armed forces, it is also a practical embarrassment. Retired Major General Rabe Abubakar spent years crafting the military’s public messages. Now, in a video circulated online, he sits under a tree in an unknown forest, visibly calm but utterly captive, while his wife pleads on behalf of bandits for the release of their “children.” It is a scene that no military spokesperson would ever have scripted. And as the days pass and no official response comes, the question that hangs over Katsina is whether the government’s silence means a rescue is being planned – or whether the video itself has already forced a shift from a strategy of force to the very dialogue that the general himself says the bandits are now demanding.
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