B@ndits Abd¥ct 16-Year-Old Boy, Six Girls in Abuja

A 16-year-old boy and six young girls have been abd¥cted by ba@ndits during a late-night att@ck on Gidan-Bijimi, a community in Kawu ward of Bwari Area Council, Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Gidan-Bijimi, which borders Marke village near the Kaduna State boundary, was raided around 9:47 p.m. on Wednesday. Armed men wielding AK-47 rifles reportedly stormed two houses and whisked away the victims amid heavy g+nfire.

A resident of Kawu, Suleiman Shuaibu, confirmed the incident, saying the att@ck threw the community into confusion. He said local vigilantes attempted to confront the b@@but retreated due to the attackers’ superior firepower.

According to him, the abd¥cted girls are aged between 17 and 23.

“It was around 9:53 p.m. when a call came from Gidan-Bijimi that b@ndits had invaded the village and abducted six young girls. Unfortunately, my cousin sister was among the victims,” he said.

The incident forced some residents to flee the community, and no contact has yet been made with the abductors.

Efforts to reach SP Josephine Adeh, spokesperson of the FCT Police Command, were unsuccessful as calls and messages were not answered at the time of filing the report.

The att@ck comes barely two days after FCT Minister Nyesom Wike directed security agencies to strengthen surveillance at Abuja’s borders. A joint operation involving the police, DSS, military and other agencies was recently deployed across the territory to curb rising insecurity.

FCT Police Commissioner Miller G. Dantawaye had charged the team to work in synergy to eliminate cr+minal activities, noting that the minister provided adequate logistics to support the operation.