Fear Grips Abuja As Civil Defense Officer, 8 Others, Kidnapped

Barely a week after two persons were shot dead and six others injured in Kwaku village following a gun attack by yet to be identified assailants, at least nine persons including a 12 year old boy and an officer of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps have been kidnapped in Pegi community in Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory.

Kwaku village is also in Kuje area council.

THE WHISTLER learnt that the victims were kidnapped around 8pm while on their way home, when their vehicle was attacked by the gunmen dressed in military camouflage.

The attack left a number of persons critically injured including another NSCDC officer.

The chairman of Pegi Community Development Association (PCDA), Taiwo Aderibigbe, who confirmed the kidnap said the attack has left the community in fear.

He said the local vigilante that witnessed the abduction revealed that the kidnappers who were dressed in military camouflage, took the kidnapped victims into the bush.

A victim, who was released on health grounds, said the attackers could not be less than 20.

Aderigbigbe has revealed that the kidnappers had called demanding N10 million ransom from a relative of the abductees.

The PCDA head, however, commended the FCT police commissioner, Adam Ciroma, for his prompt response to the distress call of the villagers.

He said policemen were in the community tracking every lead left by the kidnappers.

This is the second time kidnapping incident would happen in the community.

It would be recalled that in 2018, four people were kidnapped along the same makeshift path to the community that housed naval quarters. A naval officer and one civilian were seriously injured at the scene which is less than 300 meters to the community in the December 6, 2018 incident.

In the Kwaku incident, the gunmen invaded the community around 1:30am last Friday.

A resident of the community, who asked not to be named for fear of being targeted, said the gunmen shot indiscriminately at houses in the community.

“The two children and four other victims that sustained bullet wounds tried to escape after they heard the sound of gunshots and stray bullets hit them,” he said.

The gunmen, he disclosed, fled into the bush when some vigilante members from a neighbouring village mobilised to the scene.

When contacted, the spokesman of the FCT police command, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, confirmed the incident, saying the police have commenced investigation.

In August, the Nigeria Union of Journalists FCT Council organized a town hall meeting on rising insecurity in Nigeria’s federal capital.