•96 hours of horror, 85 seized
•How security was breached at Army Estate, lawyer’s wife, in-law abducted …captors demand N30m ransom
Beneath the veneer of development and progress, modern infrastructure, serene environment and bustling streets, which also, ultimately, stand as a symbol of national pride, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, is experiencing a new wave of terror that is shaking the city to its foundation.
Sunday Vanguard reports that, in recent months, Abuja has been plagued by a series of abductions.
The kidnappers target children, youths and families, causing panic and pain among residents.
They appear well-coordinated, operating in broad daylight, often at busy intersections or near public places such as markets and schools.
They also carry out their operations at night.
The breakdown of those abducted by the bloodthirsty terrorists indicates that between Thursday, January 4 and Sunday, January 7 (96 hours), a total of 85 persons were allegedly abducted.
And penultimate Thursday alone, 22 people were said to have been kidnapped in Kawu village, Bwari Area Council.
Recall also that on January 7, daredevil gunmen invaded Sagwari Layout Estate, Dutse, Abuja with sophisticated weapons and abducted at least ten persons.
Days later, reports said the terrorists may have killed three of the victims in their custody to send a strong warning to their relatives negotiating ransom.
Reports also said the assailants had increased the N60 million per person ransom they were demanding to N100 million.
One of the recent incidents is the abduction of six sisters and their father in the Bwari Area Council of the FCT by bandits on January 13, 2024.
The killing of Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar, one of the girls, has generated anger among Nigerians.
The sisters were among the 23 others abducted by the bandits who reportedly also killed a policeman and injured another one during the attack.
One Folorunsho Ariyo was killed alongside Nabeeha by the hoodlums and their corpses and two other unidentified bodies were reportedly dumped around a former military checkpoint behind Idah Junction along the Bwari-Jere SCC Road in Kagarko Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Latest attack
Barely a week after, Sunday Vanguard reports that, on Thursday morning, two persons were, again, abducted after kidnappers invaded the Nigeria Post Army Estate, Kurudu, Abuja, taking away a woman, her driver and house help, after shooting her husband.
According to the wife of a retired general who preferred anonymity and lives in the estate, the incident occurred at the Phase II area of the estate occupied mainly by retired and serving military personnel.
She explained that the kidnappers sneaked into the estate, took away the woman identified as the wife of a lawyer, Mr Cyril Adikwu, her driver and house girl.
Narrating the incident, a neighbor of the victims, name withheld, said that when she heard gun shots at about 9.38pm she knew something was wrong.
“When I heard gunshots, I knew something was wrong. So, I went to my gate and ensured it was properly locked”, the eye witness said.
“Hardly had I done that when I heard other gun shots, this time in the house of my neighbor, lawyer Adikwu.
“We alerted the estate’s management and immediately, soldiers emerged, shooting and advancing towards Adikwu’s house, but before they could arrive, the kidnappers had vamoosed with their captives”.
Sunday Vanguard gathered that the kidnappers entered Adikwu’s home when their driver was returning from an errand.
According to the source, as the house girl opened the gate for the driver, about six heavily armed men walked in and surrounded them.
They went into the living room, shot at Mr Adiukwu, before taking away his driver, house girl and wife, who was watching television with her husband in the living room.
Sympathizers who gathered after the incident thought Adiukwu was dead but he explained that the bullet fired at him miraculously hit the pillar, thereby saving him and that his attackers must have thought they killed him.
It was further gathered that the kidnappers have contacted the family, demanding N30m ransom while security agencies have swung into action aimed at rescuing the abductees, unhurt.
The source attributed the kidnappers’ successful entry into the estate to the activities of people she described as illegal land sellers in the area, who she alleged sold other pieces of land adjacent, thereby making fencing impossible at one end.
She said part of the estate was not fenced, contrary to the original plan and that the kidnappers disappeared through that unfenced part.
Other residents, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, said they were traumatized by the incident because, according to them, they could not sleep for the rest of the night, for fear that the kidnappers may return to abduct more people.
They called on the FCT Development Authority, FCTDA, to re-visit the Abuja Master Plan and cut off any illegal extension preventing the fencing of the property.
Efforts to speak to the FCT Police Command proved abortive at press time.
Uniform
This was also the case when residents of Dei-Dei town located off Kubwa-Zuba Road, under Bwari area council in Abuja, were thrown into shock recently following the abduction of over 23 residents of the community, mostly taken from three housing estates in the area.
Sunday Vanguard gathered that the kidnappers, said to be mostly in military uniform, arrived at the livestock layout area located on the edge of the popular Abuja livestock market, Dei-Dei, around 8 pm and carried out their operation quietly.
Barely 48 hours after, two children and nine adults were taken away by kidnappers at Gbaupe village, behind Aco Estate along Airport Road in Abuja.
The spate of kidnappings led members of the Middle-Belt Youth Forum in Abuja to protest.
On their part, some residents, who spoke to our correspondent, voiced their growing concerns over the alarming rise of kidnappings in Abuja.
Lamentations
A tech expert, Smith Ujah, while blaming government for the unsavory situation, said: “This government can’t even secure the life of its citizens. Take a brief moment and look at the hardship and killing of innocent people that is going on.”
A human right activist, Somto Okonkwo, on his part, said: “Abuja is not safe. Kidnappers, armed bandits and terrorists are on the rampage. Seven members of a family, including six girls, were said to have been kidnapped in their Bwari residence on January 13. The father was later released to go and get 60 million to secure the release of his children.
“He failed to do so, and the kidnappers killed one of his daughters named Nabeeha. But, his other daughters are still alive. The kidnappers have now increased the ransom money to N65 million and gave a three-day deadline. Failure to raise the money and another person will be killed.”
Another resident, Chris Ani, said: “This kidnapping news is paining me to my bones
What level of irresponsible government do we have in this country? Abuja ought to be the safest city in this country especially for housing the federal capital. God have mercy on Nigeria.”
Expressing frustration over the security situation in Abuja, a Zuba based trader, Mr. Ahmed Usman, said: “It’s terrifying to think that you or your loved ones could be snatched away at any moment. Abuja used to be a safe place, but now it feels like we’re walking a tightrope.
“I can’t even let my children play outside anymore. It’s heartbreaking to witness this decline in safety and security in our once peaceful city.”
A teacher, Mrs. Rebecca Akintola, also speaking, said: “The increasing cases of kidnappings are truly horrifying and deeply concerning. It’s heart-wrenching to hear about innocent individuals, especially children, being taken away from their families and subjected to such unimaginable trauma.
“As these incidents continue to rise, it becomes paramount for our society to prioritize safety measures and put forth collective efforts to combat this heinous crime.”
Mr Joel Adewale, a civil servant, said his daughter was attacked recently on her way from Wuse to Gwagwalada.
According to him, the daughter was taken to a lonely road off Airport Road before being dispossessed of her belongings.
Adewale added that the girl was forced to put a call across to him to transfer money to her account, which was removed using a PoS machine by the criminals.
“It was more like a case of kidnap for ransom, but I was lucky to have my daughter back after parting with N150, 000,” he added.
Another school teacher, Beatrice Odeh, said: “This horrible, ugly and terrifying word, kidnapping, has become a common word in almost every household in many communities in Nigeria and FCT is not an exemption.
“This ugly incident happens on a daily basis and it’s so worrisome that things continue as if nothing is happening; only affected families bear the ordeal helplessly.
“Unfortunately, the Federal Government that claims to have the citizens’ interests (security of lives and property) seems not to be aware of anything happening around them at all”.
Also speaking, the Gbaupe village head, Chief Danjuma Gejere, said the insecurity situation in the area was getting worse, adding that the community had seen little or no intervention from government.
“I am very worried because as a leader I am answerable to my people and what has just happened is not good”, he said.
“Kidnapping in the FCT? It is troubling. The sad thing is that we have seen little government effort in this area of Gbaupe and I am calling on the Minister of Abuja who I know is a good man to step into this situation and bring security to our people.”
CSOs, stakeholders react
Former spokesman for the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation, Mr Daniel Bwala, called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to constitute a Security Advisory Council to curb the growing insecurity in the FCT and Nigeria as a whole.
His words: “It’s about time in my view that Mr. President should look at how to establish what I call the National Security Advisory Council, which will consist of retired or serving heads of the security and intelligence platforms, that is, the police, DSS, NIA, Defence and the rest, who will do out-of-the-box thinking because doing one thing over and over and expecting a different result is madness.”
A former senator from Kaduna, Shehu Sani, also said the deterioration of security in parts of Abuja is a direct result of the security situation in the states around the FCT.
He said: “The deterioration of security in parts of Abuja is a direct result of the paralysis of the security situation in the states around Abuja. Abuja cannot be immune as long as its neighbours are infected.”
On his part, the founder, Connected Development, CODE, Hamzat Lawal, alleged that part of the reason for increased kidnapping incidents in Abuja was because the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has a divided attention between being the Minister of FCT and partisan politics in Rivers State.
Lawal, therefore, urged the Minister to call on all security heads to chart a way towards ensuring sustainable security of lives and property in the nation’s capital.
He said: “I think that we have an FCT Minister that is heavily distracted by the politics of Rivers State.
“Abuja is a city and, as a Minister, he is the mayor and the chief executive of Abuja, and, I think, this calls for immediate action and attention where the Minister should call all the security heads from NSCDC to the police and other arms of the security community and also traditional and religious leaders within the metropolis and I also think that this is a high security alert and a call to the police.
“We’ve not had this bad in the FCT. You know this used to be a safe haven. They need to take us back to that and do even much better.”
Porous borders
Speaking about the depth of insecurity in the nation’s capital, the Director General, Coalition of Nigeria Youth on Security and Safety Affairs, CONYSSA, Ambassador Ade Mario Emmanuel, said part of the reasons insecurity thrives in the nation’s capital is because of her porous borders.
Emmanuel tasked the Federal Government to increase the number of security personnel in the FCT and tighten the security at the borders.
He said: “Insecurity in FCT is under reported and why it is under reported is because of the need not to put residents in fear.
“From that end, it was advisable that some of the security challenges and security happenings within FCT should be underreported.
“But, be it as it may, the security agencies in FCT must understand that if there is no proper security in the local communities and local borders that surround the FCT, automatically FCT is very porous.
“If Gwagwalada is not well secured, bandits, kidnappers will keep coming into the FCT and kidnap and go successfully free.
“If the security of Kuje is not properly checked, it automatically means that criminals will enter the FCT and go successfully.
“So, all these local communities should now be a serious focus because these are the hideouts of these criminal elements.
“We are calling on the Nigerian government that it is high time for the Bill on Peace Corps should be taken with seriousness because there is shortage of manpower within the security architecture of the country.
“So, we are saying that security agencies are doing their best but they don’t have that strong manpower to curtail what is happening.
“Also, let a body be constituted to bring all heads of youth organizations together to bring a kind of holistic approach to the fight against crime.”
Poverty
Speaking on why kidnapping has remained a moving business in Nigeria, particularly in Abuja, the Executive Director, Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education (CHRICED), Comrade Ibrahim M. Zikirullahi, said: “We are living in the era of insecurity in Nigeria and there’s no sign that it will abate soon because what really drives people into crime is poverty, unemployment and lack of good governance and all these are all in place and, therefore, you have the mass population of people that are unemployed.
“Able-bodied men and women all over the country are not productively engaged; then even the little means of survival that the people live on has been completely taken away from them by the so-called removal of fuel subsidy and lack of basic facilities for the people.
“So, Abuja’s case became very pronounced because it is the capital of Nigeria and then it is also believed that most of the richest men and women in Nigeria reside in Abuja and, therefore, it is easy for whoever that is kidnapped must more or less be someone of affluence that could easily pay ransom. That is why Abuja case became worrisome.”
On the way forward, he said: “I think the only way we can overcome these challenges is when governance is situated in such a way that the people that are meant to benefit from the governance system benefit and that is by providing employment, ensuring that both the young and the elderly are taken care of and then having the right policies in place that really shake corruption, not what we have today.”
Shedding light on the development, the Managing Director, Beacon Security, Dr Kabir Adamu, noted that the FCT security department had failed to put in place efficient and effective security management systems.
“In simple terms, the FCTA, especially its security department and the FCT security committee, has not put in place an effective and efficient security management system that is a combination of people, technology, and systems with the ability for proactive and reactive security including the elements to deter, detect and to delay threat actors”, Adamu said.
“The other elements are the ability to respond, review and recover. These six elements have several components that failed when my consultancy did a desktop audit to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the security management system in place in the FCT at the moment.
“To properly understand the context of my statement, it is important to situate the FCT, Abuja. It shares boundaries with four states that are all security-challenged. These are Kaduna, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger States.
“All have threat elements including varied forms of non-state armed groups that have the capacity to use the forested and mountainous paths in the border communities of the FCT to these states to come in and attack innocent residents and escape back through the same routes,” he added.
Sunday Vanguard.
