Gunmen abduct seven family members in Abuja

Two policemen have sustained bullet injuries, while seven family members have been abducted by bandits in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory.

Our correspondent gathered that a middle-aged man, simply identified as Alhaji, who led policemen to confront the kidnappers, was shot dead by the bandits.

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

It was revealed that the police officers exchanged gunfire with the bandits, while two police officers sustained gunshot wounds during the face-off.

A resident of Bwari who spoke to our correspondent on the telephone on Friday said the incident happened in the early hours of Wednesday when the bandits invaded the Zuma 1 area in the Bwari central ward of the council.

He further revealed that the bandits positioned themselves at strategic places after identifying the victims’ home, adding that the victims upon suspecting strange sounds and movements in the vicinity, contacted to a relative identified as Alhaji (now deceased), who informed the police about the development.

The rise in bandit attacks in the nation’s capital city in recent times following several attacks on villages which have resulted in the abductions of many persons.

Residents also revealed that bandits in the early hours of Tuesday, invaded Barangoni, also in Bwari central ward, and abducted three persons, while injuring a vigilante member.

Speaking about the Wednesday incident, a resident said, “It was when the owner of the house suspected strange sounds and movements around his house that he immediately called his brother, who is popularly known as Alhaji, to alert the police.

“The bandits eventually succeeded in whisking away the man and his family members, making seven of them, and the distance from the victims’ house to where the police engaged the bandits is far, and two policemen were shot and sustained serious injuries.

“The truth is that Bwari Area Council is under siege because for the past two weeks now, bandits have been moving from one community to another killing and abducting people. Unfortunately, his brother, Alhaji was shot dead during the shootout.”

When contacted on Friday, the spokesperson for the FCT Police Command, SP Josephine Adeh, didn’t respond to phone calls and text messages by our correspondent.