Gunmen, suspected to be bandits have killed two persons and abducted 22 others in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja.
The gunmen, reported to be in scores, stormed farms in Rafin Daji, a farming community in Abaji Area Council where they whisked away men, women and children on their farm lands during the day.
The incident reportedly happened on Wednesday but was not reported until the police confirmed it on Friday.
Rafin Daji is a border community between the FCT and Lapai Local Government Area of Niger State.
Thirteen members of a family were among the 22 persons abducted by the suspected bandits who also burnt down two tractors belonging to the owner of a large farm in the area during their operation.
“We have confirmed that 22 people were kidnapped from different farms in the Rafin Daji area of Abaji, and the kidnappers are Fulani herdsmen. When they spoke to a relative through the phone this morning using one of the kidnapped victims’ phone, they asked us to pay the sum of N12 million for the release of the 22 victims.” a relative of the victims, Ibrahim Barde, reportedly said.
The police confirmed the incident to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday and added that none of the victims had been rescued.
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“The farmers were on their farmland working when gunmen outnumbered and kidnapped them,” the acting spokesperson of the FCT Police Command, Oduniyi Omotayo said in a text message to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday morning.
Mr Omotayo, added that no one has so far been rescued but the search for the abductees continues.
“Upon receipt of the information, a combined team of Police officers from various Tactical and intelligence units of the Command, Destiny Hunters, Vigilantes, and Local hunters stormed the forest, combing it aggressively even as I speak. For the rescue of the victims and to bring perpetrators to book. Monitoring and surveillance of the community also continues,” he said.
Apart from Kuje where several abductions occurred in the past, communities within Abaji have recently come under series of attacks and abductions.
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