TWO policemen have sustained bullet injuries, while seven family members have been abducted as gunmen suspected to be bandits intensify attacks on Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
This newspaper gathered that a middle-aged man, simply identified as Alhaji, who led policemen to foil the kidnapping of the seven family members, was shot dead by the bandits.
Our reporter had reported that in recent days, gunmen had been been invading villages under Bwari Area Council, abducting and killing residents.
A resident of Bwari, Isaiah Samuel, who spoke to our correspondent on the telephone on Friday, said the incident happened in the early hours of Thursday, when the gunmen invaded Zuma 1 in Bwari central ward of the council.
He said the gunmen positioned themselves at strategic places after they had identified their victims’ house, saying the victims upon suspecting a strange sound immediately placed a call to a relation identified as Alhaji (deceased).
“It was when the man suspected a strange sound in front of his house that he immediately called his brother, popularly called Alhaji to alert the police,” he said.
Alhaji was said to be leading a team of police to the house when one of the gunmen hiding at a corner shot him dead.
Samuel said the police also immediately started exchanging fire with the gunmen, which he said led to two of the officers sustaining gunshot wounds.
“The gunmen eventually succeeded in whisking away the man and his family members, because the distance from the victims’ house to where the police engaged the gunmen is far,” he added.
Samuel also recalled how the gunmen in the early hours of Tuesday, invaded Barangoni, still in Bwari central ward and abducted three persons, while injuring a vigilante member.
He called on the authorities of the council to come to the aid of the residents by liaising with security agents to tackle incessant kidnapping in the area.
“The truth is that Bwari area council is under siege, because for the past two weeks now, bandits have been moving from one community to another killing and abducting people,” he said.
When contacted, the spokeswoman of the FCT Police Command, SP Adeh Josephine, in a reply to a text message sent to her phone said, “I will get back to you please”.