Unknown gunmen in Abuja on Monday night have reportedly invaded the Bmuko Community in the Dutse Baupma axis of the Bwari Area Council, kidnapping four residents in the area.

The PUNCH reported that a resident of the community, Mr Isah, on Tuesday, said the gunmen arrived in the community at about 11:50 pm on Monday, at the house of one Engr Patrick, whose wife and brother were among the four abducted persons.

Recall that the Area Council had in January been attacked when gunmen kidnapped 22 persons and killed Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar, a 400-level student of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria after her father failed to pay N60m ransom demanded to secure her release and that of five other sisters, who the gunmen had taken.

The gunmen had also abducted and killed 13-year-old Folashade Ariyo, who was kidnapped alongside ten other residents of Sagwari Estate Layout in Dutse-alhaji Area, also in the Bwari Area Council. Again, in February, bandits abducted two teenage sisters at Gutar Community, Chikakore, in Kubwa, Bwari Area Council of the FCT, Abuja, and demanded N30m ransom from the family.

According to Isah, the kidnappers, who numbered more than 30, stormed Zone C, Road 5 of the community and shot sporadically in the air before breaking into the house of the engineer, abducting 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. It was the group going towards the hillside that stopped at a nearby house, where they kidnapped a pastor and another young man. We could not do anything; we were scared to death during the period of the operation”, he narrated.

A resident and leader of the community, who pleaded anonymity, said they heard gunshots at about midnight, and a landlord on the community platform had sent a voice note that they were being attacked.

As we speak, the soldiers who went searching for them have returned without rescuing them. The police officers are still in the bush searching for them. We have been demanding a police outpost here in the Bmuko Community; this is a populated environment. Whatever is happening here is not out of the knowledge of the security architecture of the FCT.

“The wife and brother of one Engineer Patrick were also among the people that were kidnapped, and also a pastor. The kidnappers came with AK47 because some of the guys during the night search picked up about two or three bullets of AK47”, he said.

However, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh, could not be reached via phone call or text when filing this report.