Nigeria gang kidnaps 14, including bride and bridesmaids

In this region of Nigeria, it is traditional for young brides to spend their first night of married life with their bridesmaids in their new home, with the husband only settling in later.

A baby, the baby's mother and another woman were also taken, Abdullahi added.

Abductions became more widespread in Nigeria after the jihadist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 teenage girls in Chibok, in the northeast, sparking an international outcry.

Besides radical Islamists, bandit gangs have also sown violence across swathes of northwest and central Nigeria, where they carry out kidnappings for ransom, attack villages, kill their inhabitants and burn houses after looting them.

According to Abdullahi, Chacho had already been targeted in October by bandits, who kidnapped 13 people.

"We had to pay ransom to secure the freedom. Now, we are faced with the same situation," he told AFP over the phone.