Panic As Bandits Abduct 7 Family Members, Shoot Policemen In FCT

Attacks by bandit in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have resulted in two police officers sustaining gunshot wounds, with seven family members being abducted.

Daily trust reports 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 bandits.

It had been reported that in recent days, bandits had been been invading villages under Bwari Area Council, abducting and killing residents.

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

He said the bandits 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 (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 bandits hiding at a corner shot him dead.

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

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

Samuel also recalled how the bandits in the early hours of Tuesday, 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, bandits have been moving from one community to another killing and abducting people,” he said.

When contacted, the spokeswoman of the FCT Police Command, SP Adeh Josephine, in a reply to a text message sent to her phone said, “I will get back to you please”.