Uche AmunikeResidents of Tunga Maje village in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja are enveloped in fear as armed men invaded the Hilltop Hotel Lodge premises and abducted Honorable Friday Sani Makama, Prince Frederick Adejoh and others yet to be identified, Thursday.
Hon Makama, a former legislator in the Kogi State House of Assembly, had recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the ruling All Progressives Congress,APC, ahead of the forthcoming 2023 general election
Also abducted is Prince and Adejoh who is currently the Oma Onu Aya of Igala land.
The suspected kidnappers scared security guards away from the area with sporadic shooting before caving in on their victims and whisking them away to an unknown destination.
The incident disrupted the daily economic activities in the area as residents were filled with fear and tension which led to some of them deserting the area for safety.
An eyewitness who deals in spare parts in the area, said, ‘Things we used to hear from very far places have gradually come to us here in FCT. According to what we heard, the gunmen were heavily armed with sophisticated weapons’.
‘If they can attack the hotel with the kind of security they have there, then what do you think would happen to the common man? These criminals don’t care whether you are rich or poor. They attack everybody’.
‘We heard that some workers who are just hustling to get what to eat were also abducted. So who is safe? We are all in’.
Another FCT resident, Mr Aruna Omoha decried the security situation in the area, saying that the number of unreported cases were even more than the reported ones.
Hear him: ‘In FCT, criminals are silently killing residents on a daily basis without the knowledge of the media and even the security agencies’.
‘Most times, when the assailants abduct a resident, they would warn the family members not to involve the police or the media’.
“Due to fear of the victim being killed, the family members will not report the case and that is how the ransom will be paid and anything on the contrary, the victim will be killed’, he concluded.
Owing to the porous borders with states like Niger, kaduna and other places where banditry thrives, countless criminal elements who migrated to the FCT have similarly attacked many parts of the city.
There is general fear of a possible invasion of the city by the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents as stated by an anonymous security personnel.
Hear him: ‘What we can’t tell is how these elements get into the city despite the level of tight security in many parts of the territory’.
‘It is my fear that the Boko Haram may also gain entrance into the city like they did in Niger. Some of the places they captured in Niger State are not far from the FCT. We all have to be vigilant’, he said.
Recall that on May 21, this year, the Nigeria Police Force alerted the general public of possible attacks by Boko Haram terrorists and other criminal elements in the cities of Abuja and Jos, Plateau State.
The alert was contained in a letter addressed to the Commissioners of Police and the Command Headquarters of the FCT/Plateau state and signed by Ag CP Idowu Owhunwa, Principal Staff Officer to the Acting Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba.
The letter said: ‘Intelligence report at the disposal of the Inspector-General of Police has uncovered plan by Boko Haram sect to attack major cities in the country, particularly in Jos, Plateau State and the FCT, Abuja,’ it stated.
This was confirmed by the Federal Capital Territory spokesperson, ASP Mariam Yusuf
