Abuja community regrets’ kidnappers’ attacks, seeks govt assistance

The continuous attacks in the region by some alleged kidnappers have angered the residents of the Kuchibuyi village in Kubwa, Bwari region Council of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

It was discovered that a few locals reported seeing around three kidnapping attempts in 2023, with the vigilante group stopping two of the attempts.

Based on information our correspondent received on Sunday, there was a kidnapping case that happened in the village about two weeks ago.

According to reports, a victim going by the name Abu was kidnapped from his neighborhood house and freed two days later after providing a sum of money in ransom.

Many inhabitants had abandoned their residences and fled to safer locations as a result of the attacks, according to a local only known as Timmy.

“There have been several kidnapping attacks in this community since 2019,” Timmy stated. These attacks affected me as well. About eight alleged kidnappers, armed to the teeth with an Ak47, broke into this location at night in June. Among the nearly nine people who attempted attacks on the community, I was the only one who was unsuccessful.

A friend of mine was kidnapped approximately two weeks ago; she was only let free a few days later after paying a ransom. My friend is almost completely disabled by the incident. He can’t move while I’m speaking with 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.
According to Ahmed, “The community is supporting us.” They help form the vigilante organization and cover the cost of security. Still, we can’t accomplish it on our own. We need assistance from the government. We had the vigilante men when the first event occurred, but they weren’t working as well as they are currently. But after the initial onslaught, we had to make sure that every household gave money to support them in order to mobilize them further.
Attempts to reach FCT police spokesperson Josephine Adeh for comment at the time this article was filed were unsuccessful since she was not answering her cell phone on Sunday.