Gunmen abduct women, children in Kogi community

Gunmen have kidnapped women and children in an attack on Zango Daji community, a suburb of Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.

Residents said the attackers struck the community at about 8:30pm on Friday, shooting their way into a residence occupied by the family of one Abdullahi Sheriff.

Following the night attack, the gunmen abducted a woman said to be Sheriff’s wife and two of his children, who had recently moved into the newly built house with their family.

Another woman in the vicinity was also reportedly taken alongside the Sheriff’s family during the attack.

Narrating his ordeal on Sunday, Sheriff said he moved into the new house on December 18 last year with his family shortly after its completion, which was funded through loan proceeds.

The 36-year-old man said he had rushed out to get food items for his family when he received a call from one of his wives, warning him to stay away because gunmen had invaded the house and were shooting sporadically within the compound.

He said: “My senior wife, Abidat Sheriff, 35, who was just discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, was abducted along with my daughter, Zainab Sheriff, aged one year and eight months, and my five-year-old son, Mubarak. Mubarak was without any clothes or shoes when he was abducted.

“Some people later drew our attention to an uncompleted building along a bush path where they dumped Zainab, my one-year-eight-month-old daughter.”

Sheriff appealed to the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Army, and other security agencies to assist in rescuing his wife and child, who have now spent two days in captivity.

His second wife, Mrs Faiza Aliba Sheriff, said she narrowly escaped the attack by sheer luck.

She explained that she had gone into an inner room to prepare food for her nursing baby when the kidnappers stormed the sitting room.

“I switched off the light, held my baby’s mouth tightly, and lay under the bed. My first child, three-year-old Nazirat, was also abducted, but she cried uncontrollably. The kidnappers became angry and threw her out through the window.

“I later managed to escape through the back door. I crawled with the children into the darkness, running far away from the house, before a good Samaritan sheltered us until daybreak,” she said.

A resident of the area, Ahmed, said the intervention of local security operatives led to the discovery of two abducted victims who were later abandoned by the gunmen.

Meanwhile, the Kogi State Police Command said security operatives were on the trail of the bandits in their various hideouts within the state’s forests, with support from the Nigeria Police Force Air Wing.

In a statement on Sunday, the command’s spokesperson, CSP William Aya, urged members of the public to remain vigilant.

“The public should be alert and report anyone seen with bullet wounds, injuries, or suspicious behaviour to the nearest police station,” the statement added.

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