A resident of Ushafa in the Bwari Area Council of Abuja has recounted the encounter with bandits who killed a man and kidnapped his wife and children early Friday morning.

Daily Trust had reported how an armed gang invaded the area, targeting residents.

A police source confirmed the incident, but did not go into details.

The invaders were said to have kidnapped the deceased’s wife and children.

According to a resident, who preferred anonymity, the incident happened at a place popularly called Fulani New site.

She said immediately the incident happened, residents reached out to security operatives but the police responded after two hours.

“The police have evacuated corpse of the man but his family members are right now in the forest with the gunmen.”

“As the attack was ongoing, my kids were really scared, The three years old was just doing Suratul NaS (a Quranic recitation) behind me. It will take some time to recover from the trauma. Till this moment, I have been unable to sleep. I have been shaking.”

The police authorities are yet to react to the attack. Earlier efforts made to get comments from SP Josephine Adeh, Police Public Relations Officer in FCT, failed as her phone line rang out repeatedly.

Similar attempts were made at the time of filing this report.

The killing and abduction happened hours after SBM Intelligence, an Africa-focused market/security intel gathering consulting firm, said Nigerians paid N1.048 billion as ransom to kidnappers between July 2023 and June 2024.

In a report, titled ‘Grim Reaping’, the firm said FCT has the highest ransom demands in the country, with Lagos and Kaduna closely trailing.

It highlighted the complex security situation and the rise in kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria.

According to the report, though abductors demanded N11 billion as ransom within the period, only N1.048bn was paid.

The report also blamed the rising kidnapping for ransom on economic stagnation, noting that kidnappers increasingly target a broader range of people, starting with high ransom demands that are eventually lowered to what families or social organisations can afford.