Katsina — Not fewer than 20 kidnap victims in Katsina State were reportedly sold into slavery in Burkina Faso.

Information available to our correspondent revealed that the victims were allegedly kidnapped in Kankara local government area of the state and sold to a woman in Cotonou who in turn sold them to another slave merchant in Burkina Faso.

Recall that the Katsina State government and Governor Aminu Bello Masari initiated a peace dialogue where it visited the hideout of the bandits to parley with them and a swap deal which saw releases of both kidnap victims and the bandits in detention.

A reliable source told our correspondent that the Governor may have traced the location of the victims to Burkina Faso and have initiated a process of rescuing 20 indigenes of the state sold to the agents of modern-day slavery in Burkina Faso, a West- African country.

The source said the governor's Special Adviser on Drugs, Narcotics and Trafficking, Alhaji Hamza Brodo has this weekend left for Burkina Faso to negotiate for their release.

Confirming the development, Brodo said "Yes I will be travelling to Burkina Faso this weekend.

"I will only get to know if the 20 victims were indigenes of Katsina after meeting them and their captors," Brodo said.

Vanguard News Nigeria.