Kidnappers strike in FCT community, abduct 13, demand N900m

BY UKPONO UKPONG

No fewer than 13 persons were abducted yesterday by suspected gunmen in Piko, a remote community in Bwari Area Council of Abuja.

According to residents of the community, the sad incident happened midnight Sunday in the community, as the men of the underworld operated for over an hour, without any challenge from either the vigilance group or other security agencies.

A close source to the community said that the Maidakin of the community, Chief John Jatau, has confirmed that 10 residents were kidnapped from his domain, including 4 nomadic Fulani herdsmen.

He noted that out of the four Fulani people, one escaped from the kidnappers custody.

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While he said that the kidnappers have demanded a ransom of N900 million naira, he also gave the names of the kidnapped victims from his community.

According to him, the following people were kidnapped from his community and are still with their abductors, Nuhu Anyiwoyi, Emmanuel Nuhu, Danjuma Ali, Parisa Numa, Ezekiel Jatau

Shekwosa Ezekiel, Roseline Samuel, Salome Jacob, Abyelo Ezra, and Ezra Male.

The source said, “The kidnapping incident occurred last night being Sunday 05/05/2024, at about 11pm. The kidnappers raided the village for about one hour without any response or reaction from the community or outsiders. The major challenge the community faced last night in terms of communication to others was as a result of no telecommunication network in the village, so they picked people house to house. From the community, they picked about 13 people and later released three.

“The Madakin Piko informed me that they have called, and they said they need the ransom of 900,000,000 (nine hundred million). They picked about four Fulani people, and one of them is released.”

The FCT Police Command Public Relations officer, Josephine Adeh, who was contacted through a WhatsApp message, neither confirmed nor refuted the Kidnap incident.

She only asked. “When was that?” and never reacted till the time this report was filed.