Unknown gunmen abduct 7 family members in Abuja, injure policemen on rescue mission

Unknown gunmen have left two policemen injured from bullet shots, while abducting seven family members as banditry intensifies in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.

It was learned that a middle-aged man, simply identified as Alhaji, who led policemen to foil the kidnapping of the seven family members, was shot dead by the gunmen.

Before this incident, gunmen had been invading villages under Bwari Area Council, abducting and killing residents.

A resident of Bwari, Isaiah Samuel, on Friday, January 5, said the incident happened in the early hours of Wednesday, January 3, when the unknown gunmen invaded Zuma 1 in Bwari central ward of the council.

According to him, the gunmen positioned themselves at strategic places after they had identified their victims’ house, saying the victims upon suspecting a strange sound immediately placed a call to a relation identified as Alhaji (now deceased).

“It was when the man suspected a strange sound in front of his house that he immediately called his brother, popularly called Alhaji to alert the police,” he said.

Alhaji was said to be leading a team of police to the house when one of the gunmen hiding at a corner shot him dead.

Samuel said the police also immediately started exchanging fire with the gunmen, which he said led to two of the officers sustaining gunshot wounds.

“The gunmen eventually succeeded in whisking away the man and his family members, because the distance from the victims’ house to where the police engaged the them is far,” he added.

Samuel also recalled how the gunmen in the early hours of Tuesday, January 2, invaded Barangoni, still in Bwari central ward and abducted three persons, while injuring a vigilante member.

He called on the authorities of the council to come to the aid of the residents by liaising with security agents to tackle incessant kidnapping in the area.

“The truth is that Bwari area council is under siege, because for the past two weeks now, gunmen have been moving from one community to another killing and abducting people,” he said.