Nigeria: Police search for farm workers abducted over levies

By CHINEDU ASADU
Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Police in Nigeria say they are searching  for 21 people abducted by gunmen while working on farmland whose owner is believed to have owed the alleged kidnappers coerced payments. A Katsina state police spokesperson says the people kidnapped were teenagers working on a farm in the remote Faskari council area. He says the gunmen “singled out the farm and abducted them.” The spokesperson said Thursday that an initial investigation suggested “the bandits placed some levies on some of these farmers, and this particular one refused to comply with their demands.” He says police and Nigerian solderis from a nearby military outpost were working to find the abducted farm workers, who are ages 15-18.