KATSINA, Nigeria — The armed bandit syndicate responsible for the broad-daylight abduction of the former Director of Defence Information, Major General Abubakar Rabe (rtd), and his wife, has released a video of the couple in captivity, entirely bypassing monetary ransom to demand a high-stakes prisoner swap.
The four-minute, two-second video clip, which began circulating across Nigerian social media networks on Saturday afternoon, June 6, 2026, surfaces exactly one week after the couple was violently ambushed in Katsina State.
Okay News reports that the footage shows the retired senior military officer and his wife, Hajiya Amina Abubakar, standing in an undisclosed woodland location under the guard of heavily armed outlaws. Rather than demanding cash, the captors used the victims to broadcast specific, non-monetary conditions to government authorities to secure their safe release.
Speaking clearly on camera, Hajiya Amina relayed that their captors are demanding the immediate release of three of their detained operational members, whom she identified as Sani, Aminu, and Nasiru. According to her statement, two of the associates were previously apprehended by security forces in Jikamshi, Katsina State, while the third was arrested in Kano. Additionally, the syndicate is demanding the total restitution of livestock allegedly confiscated from them during recent military and local vigilante raids. She passionately appealed to the Katsina State Government and the traditional and political leadership of five specific local government areas to facilitate compliance with these terms.
Major General Rabe spoke briefly toward the end of the clip, adopting a strategic tone of mediation. He urged state actors to embrace channels of dialogue, stating that their captors had expressed an interest in peaceful coexistence and an amicable resolution to the standoff. Intelligence sources tracking northwestern banditry have linked the operational layout of the abduction to a notorious regional terror kingpin, Kachallah Muhammad, who reportedly established direct communication lines with the General’s family on Monday morning.
The high-profile security breach occurred on Saturday, May 30, 2026, near Zakin Baure village along the Marabar Musawa–Kafinsoli road in the Matazu Local Government Area. The retired General, his wife, and their driver, Abdullahi Sa’idu, were traveling to Katsina when their red Peugeot 406 was ambushed. Gunmen emerged from the bush and opened fire on the moving vehicle, wounding the driver in the hand before dragging the military chief and his wife into the forest. Security experts have warned that acceding to prisoner-of-war demands could establish a highly dangerous precedent, further emboldening syndicates to target high-ranking military assets. As of Saturday evening, neither the Katsina State Government nor the Defence Headquarters had issued an official response to the video’s release.
