18 suspected kidnappers have been killed by a thunderstorm in a forest in Toungo Local Government Area of Adamawa.
Sources report that the suspects were sharing their ransom booty when they were struck by lightning.
Toungo is located in the southern part of Adamawa State, on the Nigeria-Cameroon border.
“The kidnappers, it was gathered, had obtained over N20 million from their wealthy victims between Koncha in Cameroon and Toungo in Nigeria,” reports a source in Toungo.
According to the source, spiritual powers invoked by the angry locals are said to have been involved in the deaths of the suspects.
“Annoyed by constant kidnappings, the victims and the leaders of the community consulted a native doctor to send thunder after the kidnappers. They eventually met their end when they gathered to share their bounty,” the source added, also mentioning that local hunters could not retrieve their corpses nor their money inside some bags as well as their weapons.
DSP Suleiman Nguroje, the Police Public Relations Officer of Adamawa State said on Friday morning that the incident actually occured on Cameroonian soil, near the border with Nigeria.
“We learnt that those affected employed the services of a native doctor, but the incident occurred within Cameroon, which is not our jurisdiction,” said Nguroje.