Two young sons of a Nigerian Air Force personnel have spent nine weeks in the custody of kidnappers in Kaduna State, with their captors now demanding a fresh N200 million ransom after the family had already paid N26 million and handed over 25 mobile phones, their mother has told SaharaReporters.
Tina Daniel Dominic, whose husband is an Air Force officer, said her sons, Derrick, who will turns 14 in December, and Damian, 12, were abducted from their home at Rimi, Kamazou, in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, on Sunday, August 30, 2026, when gunmen broke into the house at night.
The mother, who spoke to SaharaReporters on Friday, said the family had sold their cars and other valuables to raise the first N20 million, and had also bought 25 mobile phones for the abductors, yet the children remain in captivity.
Recounting the night of the abduction, Mrs Dominic said she was unwell and had gone to bed earlier than usual when she began hearing gunshots.
“On 30th of August, 2026, I was in my home at Rimi, Kamazou. That night, I was not feeling fine, so we entered earlier than usual. We were sleeping, and then I started hearing noise, sounds of gunshots,” she said.
“So I picked my phone to call my neighbour, I’m hearing gunshots. They said yes, that it’s close, but they heard that kidnappers were in my neighbour’s house.
“I now wake up, on my way to go and wake my children to come so that we can stay together. I now realise that they are in my house. I was hearing how they were trying to break my fence.”
She said her husband, an Air Force personnel, was away at his place of work at the time.
“My husband is an Air Force personnel. He went back to his place of work,” she said.
“So I hid my children inside my kitchen pantry. Even before I finished hiding them, they had already come in through my first son’s room, Derrick’s room. They opened the burglary and came in.
“I’ve already hidden my three children, Derrick, Damian and Dominion.”
The gunmen, she said, demanded to know where her husband and the children were. She told them the children had gone to their father for the holiday, but they refused to believe her.
“They start pointing guns in my head, and they started asking me to open doors and they start checking. Then they took me outside, tied my hands, and took me outside.
“On reaching outside my house, to my other neighbour’s house, I saw my other neighbour already tied there.”
She said the abductors kept going back and forth between her house and where she was held, insisting she was lying about the whereabouts of her children.
“They said I should not lie to them, that they know everything. I should not lie, that they know my children are in the house. That I should not lie. And my husband, I said no, my husband left late. They were asking, if I do not tell the truth, they will kill me.
“I insisted that my children are not around, but they went in and came back. I think they received a call that the children are in the house. So they went back to the house, and then the only thing I saw, they brought my two sons out.
“I was asking Derrick, why did you people come out? They said, ‘No mommy, we did not come out, they opened and they checked and they saw us.’ I said where is Dominion, they said they left Dominion.”
Mrs Dominic said the gunmen marched her, her two sons and a neighbour through the bush for about two hours before deciding she was too weak to continue.
“We walked to an extent with the children and my neighbour. We followed the back of that Rimi. We are walking and along the line, like an hour to two hours’ walk, they saw that I could not go on again because I was falling, I could not walk faster. I was falling because I was not feeling fine.
“So they said I should go back. I said I cannot go back, where will I go? They said no, I should go back and look for money. And then they collected my phone and said I should go back and look for money, that they will call back.
“I said I don’t know the road of that location. They said I should go back, that I should just be going, that I will see people. So that is how I managed to reach home that day.”
