Terrorists renewed their onslaught on Bwari Area Council in the early hours of Sunday, with over four persons reportedly kidnapped and one person killed in the Guto area of Bwari.
The attack, which began around 12:30 a.m., targeted the fringes of Guto and Piyawe communities and spread into Tudun-Fulani and Sabon Gari areas, both in the headquarters of Bwari Area Council.
Residents reported that two separate groups of kidnappers, numbering over 30, invaded the area council, shooting sporadically and forcing their way into people’s homes.
Eyewitnesses alleged that the invaders entered Piwaye through the swamps and proceeded to Guto and Piyawe, where they kidnapped a man and killed a woman in her mid-forties.
The deceased, identified as Madam Alice, had only visited her sick mother, who stays with her brother in Bwari, where she tragically met her end.
Two victims were allegedly abducted from their homes in Guto, while another person was kidnapped from Tudun-Fulani, less than a kilometer from the council Secretariat. A resident, preferring anonymity, said the attackers operated from 12:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. without challenge from security agencies.
“What happened last night was very unfortunate. We couldn’t sleep from 12:30 a.m. when they started till almost three o’clock. Initially, we thought it was vigilantes shooting, but when it became persistent, we knew these people were back again,” the resident said.
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Another resident of Tudun-Fulani, who wished to remain unnamed, alleged that the police failed to show up despite frantic calls to the divisional headquarters in Bwari. “We felt so helpless because the kidnappers operated for over an hour, but there was no police or army to challenge them. We waited for them to show up for 20 minutes and when we didn’t hear sounds of sirens, we called again but they kept telling us they were on their way. We never saw them until the kidnappers left on their own.”
Bwari Area Council had previously been in the news earlier this year when bandits and kidnappers overran the area council, abducting people for ransom.
It would be recalled that, a 400-level student of ABU Zaria, Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar, and 13-year-old Folashade Ariyo were both kidnapped in separate attacks in Bwari and Dutse-Alhaji respectively. Both victims were later killed by their abductors following the failure to secure their release on time.
Attempts to get a police reaction on the latest attack have been unsuccessful, as phone calls and WhatsApp messages sent to the Police Public Relations Officer for the FCT Command, Josephine Adeh, were unanswered.
