After 6 years and 7 months, Alice Ngaddah, a mother of two who was working as a nurse with the United Nations has been freed.
Alice was abducted on 1 March 2018 by terrorists suspected to be members of Boko Haram or ISWAP. Law & Society Magazine could not ascertain if any ransom was paid for her release.
Likewise, Ganiyat Popoola, a resident doctor at the National Eye Centre in Kaduna who was kidnapped in December 2023, regained freedom on Wednesday.
She regained freedom 10 months after she was kidnapped in Kaduna, along with her husband and nephew. When her husband was released in March, Popoola and her nephew remained in captivity.
Omoha Amobi, the spokesperson of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) announced her release on Thursday via a statement.
NARD also stated that she has been reunited with her family. FIJ reported that NARD embarked on a nationwide strike in August to demand her release.
Before she was abducted, Popoola was a registrar in the Department of Ophthalmology at the National Eye Centre.
Daily Trust reported that Tope Zenith Osundara, the president of NARD, said no ransom was paid to secure her release from the kidnappers’ den.
The kidnappers, however, demanded a N60 million ransom before they released her husband in March.
A resident doctor who did not want to be named told FIJ that the specifics of her release had not been disclosed.
“But it’s definitely through the efforts of security operatives and the association of resident doctors. Though I don’t know the particular security outfits, I am sure more details would emerge,” said the doctor.
When FIJ called Mansir Hassan, the police spokesperson in the state, for comments on details of the release, he said: “The only thing I can confirm to you is that she was released. Any other detail is not meant for the media.”
