Abuja community laments kidnappers’ attacks, seeks govt help

Residents of the Kuchibuyi community in Kubwa, Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, have expressed displeasure at the incessant attacks in the area by some suspected kidnappers.

the residents that about three kidnapping attacks had been witnessed in 2023 while members of the vigilante group foiled two attacks.

According to information obtained by our correspondent on Sunday, there was a recent kidnapping case in the community, which occurred roughly two weeks ago.

A victim, who goes by the name Abu, was said to have been taken from his home in the area and released two days later after paying an amount of money as ransom.

A resident simply identified as Timmy mentioned that the attacks had led many residents to abandon their properties and flee to safer areas.

Timmy said, “Since 2019, there have been a series of kidnapping attacks in this community. I was one of the victims of these attacks. Just in June, about eight suspected kidnappers fully armed with Ak47 invaded this area at night. I was the only person out of almost nine of these attacks on the community that was not successful.

“Just about two weeks ago, a friend of mine was kidnapped and was just freed about a few days after paying some ransom. The incident has nearly crippled my friend. He cannot walk as I am talking to you.

“Another resident said to be named Austin, who was a victim in November, died about a few weeks after these people collected about N11 million as ransom. There was another resident called Wale, a first-class graduate who was killed in October. One chief in the community was also kidnapped.”

Timmy regretted that despite the vigilantes in the community, its security remained the same despite the kidnappers’ constant attacks.

The secretary to the community, Yusuf Alkali, made a plea to the government to assist it in achieving its goal by setting up a security station and providing a patrol van.

Alkali said, “This has been a very big security challenge in the community. We want the government to come to our aid and provide security men who can support our vigilante men to help us at least tackle these kidnappers. We will also want the government to help us establish a police outpost in the community. There is no security to succeed without proper mobility.

“If we can have a government with at least a security patrol vehicle or motorcycle that can help our men patrol the community at night, we will be happy. If the government can help us with this, we will be happy. We are not asking for money. All we need are these things we have mentioned.”

Corroborating, the commandant of Kuchibuyi vigilante group, Suleiman Ahmed, said even though the security group was trying its best, the community needed the government’s support to put an end to kidnapping incidents in the area.

Ahmed said, “The community is helping us. They pay for security and help put the vigilante group into place. However, we cannot do it alone. We need the government’s help. When the first incident happened, we had the vigilante men but they were not functioning as they are now. But after the first attack, we had to mobilise them more by ensuring that each household contributed money to support them.”

As of the time this report was filed, efforts to get a comment from the FCT police spokesperson, Josephine Adeh, were futile as she could not pick up her calls when her mobile phone rang out on Sunday.