The four children who were kidnapped from their home in Chikun Local Government Area (LGA), Kaduna State, on November 26 were reunited with their parents on Monday.

FIJ earlier reported how the children, three girls and a boy, were kidnapped at Keke A, Millennium City, Chikun LGA.

They had gone to school in the morning and returned home later that day. But when Yunusa Adamu, their father, returned home that night, he would find their bathroom door destroyed and their shoes abandoned inside a gutter in front of the house.

On that day, Adamu’s wife was at the hospital with their twin babies who were admitted. He said he had gone to the hospital to check on his wife before heading home.

The kidnappers called him the next day. They wanted N300 million as ransom to release his children. While the three girls were aged 14, 12 and 9, the boy was only a toddler who would turn two in December.

The wait between November 26 and December 2 for the children’s return, unhurt, was a torturous one for the parents. Not only did the kidnappers starve the children but they also threatened to kill them if the N300 million ransom was not paid.

READ MORE: 4 Children Vanish From Kaduna Home, Parents Fear Kidnapping

FIJ gathered that the children were rescued through the efforts of the Kaduna State government, led by Governor Uba Sani, and the office of Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser (NSA).

“The release of the children is one of the key outcomes of the peace agreement brokered by the Peace Dialogue Group established by the Kaduna State Government in collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser,” the governor’s statement read on Monday.

However, the rescue efforts came at a cost for the parents, who were also negotiating with the kidnappers. From the initial N300 million demanded from the parents, they slashed it to N25 million and then N8 million — N2 million for each child.

On Sunday, Adamu and his father-in-law took N8 million to the abductors.

The agreement was that they would get the children after dropping the money at the meeting point. But the kidnappers failed to keep their word.

Adamu and his in-law were forced to return home without the children after the kidnappers told them to leave the area or they would kill them.

This was how the father described it: “My father-in-law and I took the money to them. We started moving around after 5:00 pm, but we did not meet the kidnappers until around 7:48 pm. The meeting point was a village. They collected the ransom and refused to release the children. After long pleading, they threatened to kill us if we didn’t leave that area. So, we had no option but to come back home.”

“We were all afraid,” he added. He said he had spoken with the children before delivering the ransom because he needed to be sure they were healthy.

Then he got a call from the Kaduna Police headquarters. The police were not pleased to learn that a ransom had been paid.

“They said we should have followed their advice by not taking any ransom to them.”

Adamu told FIJ that the police had assured them that efforts were ongoing to rescue the children unharmed. The police also advised them against paying ransom.

“They said whenever those people call us, we should tell them that we don’t have money and they should bear with us. They said we should not talk to them harshly because they may harm the children. They said we should calm down and that the Kaduna State government is doing all it can to rescue those children,” he said.

But the pain of the parents, knowing that their children were being held by kidnappers, starved and threatened with death, made them pay the ransom.

“You know how parents feel when their children are not with them. We were looking at the value of those children, which is more than the money they were demanding. That’s why we tried to get the ransom to the kidnappers in exchange for the children,” Adamu disclosed while explaining why he paid the ransom.

Adamu said he got another call from the police on Monday, some minutes past 4 pm. “They said that I should meet them in their office with my wife.”

When the couple got there, no one told them why they had been invited as a high-ranking policeman asked them to enter a car. “When they started driving, we did not even know what was happening and where they were taking us to. It turned out that they were taking us to the NSA office in Abuja.”

Adamu told FIJ that that was where he and his wife found out that their four children had been rescued.

READ MORE: Kidnappers of Kaduna Siblings Demand N300m Ransom, Threaten to Kill Toddler ‘Because of Disturbing Cries’

“We met our children at the NSA office in the presence of the governor. The governor, with his good office, was able to rescue our children. The NSA handed over the children to the governor, and the governor handed them over to us at the NSA office in Abuja. We are so grateful,” Adamu said.

“We wanted to come back on Monday, but the aides of the governor said we should spend the night in Abuja because it was late. The police commander gave us an escort and ensured we got back to Kaduna safely.”

Adamu said besides the slight injuries the children sustained on their legs because the kidnappers made them walk without their shoes, they were not hurt. “Moreover, the NSA had started treating them there in Abuja that Monday,” he said.

Meanwhile, when FIJ called Mansir Hassan, the state police public relations officer, on Wednesday for comments, he said a statement had been released on the rescue operation. Then he sent the press statement issued by Governor Sani.

Abimbola Abatta is a reporter with FIJ, writing reports in partnership with Report for the World which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.