On Sunday night, a group of [gunmen] stormed Piko, a remote community in Bwari Area Council of Abuja and reportedly kidnapped 13 individuals.
The operation which went on for a whole hour without any resistance is reported to be the latest in a series of attacks on the Council.
A [community source] said the Madaki of the community, Chief John Jatau also confirmed that 10 residents were kidnapped from his domain, including four nomadic Fulani herdsmen.
He noted that out of the four Fulani, one escaped from the kidnappers custody, and that the kidnappers have demanded for a ransom of N900 million Naira.
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, 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 ramson of N900 million. They picked about four Fulani people and one of them later escaped.”
The Federal Capital Territory FCT Minister, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike had recently provided logistic support, including motorcycles for hard-to-reach areas, for security agencies in the territory.
In a similar event last week, the residents of Bmuko community in Dutse Baupma axis of Bwari area council in the [Federal Capital Territory] (FCT), Abuja, were thrown into a state of panic after four individuals were kidnapped from the community.
According to a resident of the community, who goes by the name Isah, the incident took place around 11:50 PM at the residence of one Engineer Patrick.
According to him, the kidnappers who were more than 30 in number stormed Zone C, Road 5 of the community and shot sporadically into the air, before they broke into the house of the engineer and abducted two of his family members.
From the engineer’s house, after carrying his wife and brother, they divided themselves into two groups. [One group went towards the riverside that leads to Kubwa and Bwari, while the other group went towards the hillside].