The terrorists demanded that each of the women would be swapped with 20 cows each bringing the total to 800 cows, husbands of the abducted women and other security sources have said.
The people of Chibok, including members of the Vigilante Youths denied the abduction of the Fulani women when news of the kidnap first filtered, saying that the only people missing in the area were the 230 female students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok.
The police authorities in Borno State also maintained that they were not aware of the alleged missing Fulani women.
However, the insurgents who picked up the women in Garkin Fulani, a nomadic settlement near Chibok town last Thursday were now reaching out to their husbands, demanding 20 cows each for their release.
A security source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity said many Fulani herdsmen had reported cases of abduction of their women in various police stations around Damoba and Kaga Local Government Areas of the state.
The source however, said that the husbands and fathers of the abducted women were not ready to part with even a single calf as ransom for the release of their wives and daughters.
“You know the Fulanis hold their herds more dearly, because without it they have no means of livelihood. Most of them have come to report the incident at our offices but they are all saying such demands are not tenable,”he said.
According to the officer, securitymen were presently handling a particular case at a police divisional outpost in Jakana town, Kaga Local Government, about 50 kilometres away from Maiduguri, where a Fulani man said he would rather stay without his wife than give out what he did not even have.
This man in question has a son delivered to him by his abducted wife and presently the man and his son are at the police station in Jakana.
He said he was asked to provide 40 cows as ransom for the release of his abducted wife, but the man said he has his son with him; and that if it was God’s wish that his wife would return to him, he does not need to part with his means of livelihood to secure her release, he added.