Nemesis finally caught up with a notorious kidnapper operating in the North, who confessed to the abductions of some of her boyfriends. While kidnapping is assumed to be the exclusive preserve of men, this female kidnapper has shown by her statement, according to police sources, that even ladies are not left out of the nefarious business.

The involvement of Hauwa Yunus, the female kidnapper, according to ArewaLive findings, has opened more dangerous dimensions to the alarming extent kidnapping has reached in the country.

It is not an exaggeration that kidnapping is now a big business in Nigeria. In fact, it is a multibillion naira business given the number of kidnappings taking place every year and the amount paid by families of kidnap victims as ransoms around the nation. Record also places Nigeria as one of the countries with the highest rate of kidnapping in the world.

Kidnapping across the North just like in other parts of the country is on the increase. A kidnap victim, AdamuLawal, who was kidnapped along Abuja /Kaduna road sometimes ago, had no cash or relatives to raise money for him. He told ArewaLive that he had to resort to selling his landed properties to raise the N5m the kidnappers demanded from him.

Lawal who spoke to Arewa Live narrated how he and others were kidnapped while travelling to Abuja in a commercial vehicle. The kidnappers waylaid the vehicle and asked everyone to disembark as they were all marched into a forest trekking for several hours until they got to a spot where the kidnappers began to contact the victims’ relations for a ransom.

‘I didn’t want to attract unnecessary noise, so I told my wife to sell our land and bring the money to the kidnappers,” he said.

However, Aliyu Ismail, another victim was able to escape from his captors. He told Arewa Live how he ran for several hours inside the bush after escaping from the kidnappers.  According to him, as from the second day after his abduction, he began to plot his escape as he didn’t have money to raise for his ransom.

According to police record, there were about 685 kidnappings in the first quarter of 2019 alone. Kidnappers and bandits have so much entrenched themselves in the business, such that even state governments such as Zamfara, are negotiating with them to either free those in their custody or give up the heinous business entirely.

In the same Zamfara State, findings have shown that people are kidnapped on a daily basis as the state government seems to have become totally incapable of bringing the menace to an end. In almost every case of kidnapping, ransoms are paid by the family of the victim. The amount paid, however, would depend on the status of the victim, his placement in the society  or the condition under which he became a victim.

According to an official statement by the Zamfara State government, released three months ago, a total sum of N3 billon was paid as ransom by families of those kidnapped in 2019 alone.

The recent arrest of HauwaYunus reportedly one of the most notorious kidnappers in the Northern part of the country, according to security sources, is helping to deconstruct the criminal act as well as helping to find a lasting solution.

The lady, named HauwaYunus, is a Fulani and lives in a village in Nasarawa State. According to a security operative, AbdullahiAlhassan, “Hauwa is from Jigawa State but lives in Masaka village in Nasarawa State.”

According to Alhassan, HauwaYunus is a very beautiful woman, who had been in three marriages. All the three marriages, he explained, had collapsed due to her wayward lifestyle and deviant attitude.

One of Hauwa’s former husbands, according to Alhassan, disclosed that she often came back home drunk. Several efforts were made to make her change her ways but all came to nought.

Hauwa, he told ArewaLive further, did not just earn her reputation as a notorious kidnapper. Her kidnap record, he stated, speaks volumes as she had been linked with the kidnap of several prominent Nigerians. Though just 24 years old, her criminal record, it was said, was far advanced than her age. She was allegedly a  specialist in using her beauty to lure men into relationships and would later kidnap them for ransom.

She was also said to have confessed to raping some of her victims as a result of her strong sexual appetite, especially after consuming some illicit drugs.

Arewa Live findings also gathered that Hauwa at one time or the other had kidnapped all her boyfriends, unknown to them that she was the mastermind of the crime. They would only be released after the payment of ransom to her accomplices.

The long arm of the law caught up with her recently in Abuja where she confessed to the police that she was in fact behind the kidnapping of her first boyfriend, who she confessed was rich and very caring. She stated further that when she realised that the man had several other girlfriends she decided to make money from him by kidnapping him.

Explaining how she managed to plan the kidnapping of her boyfriend, Arewa Live gathered that she lured him to one hotel where they both spent the night together. The man did not know that she had arranged for him to be kidnapped on their way out of the hotel.

“Unknown to him [her boyfriend], I have planned with other members (of my gang) how he would be kidnapped. After several negotiations, he paid two million naira and I collected two hundred thousand as my share.

“Even though he did not know I planned his kidnap, when he was released he still wanted us to continue with our relationship,” she confessed.

Hauwa, ArewaLive gathered,  also told the police that she organised the kidnapping of her second boyfriend, revealing that the man was kidnapped when he stopped by the roadside to buy something on his way to his house.

“He paid the sum of one million naira as ransom and I collected fifty thousand naira as my share,” she said.

Her third boyfriend, according to her ,was not rich like the others. He eventually paid N500,000 for his release. Despite the fact that the man was poor, according to Hauwa, she spent more time with him than the others.

Apart from her lovers, Arewa Live was informed that Hauwa also confessed to hatching the plan to kidnap her closet friend, Zainab. She told her interrogators that she was with Zainab on one occasion and overheard her talking over the phone that she would soon get a credit alert of N600,000.

“I thought that the best thing to do was to kidnap her and collect the money from her. Eventually, I kidnapped her,” she said.

But Zainab, her bosom friend, did not survive the ordeal. Due to inhuman treatment she was subjected to by her abductors, she sustained life-threatening injuries which eventually led to her death.

After Zainab’s death, Hauwa  was said to have gone into her friend’s room, took her ATM and withdrew all the money in her account. Not only that, she took her car, repainted it and later sold it, including almost every other thing her friend owned including personal effects like clothes.

Karma would catch up with Hauwa as she was eventually arrested by the Inspector General of Police Special Squad under the leadership of Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari.

She is currently helping the police in its findings on several other kidnappings in different parts of the North.