A new couple who got married last Saturday, Imam of the community Mosque, his wife and three children, including a 10-month old baby were among those abducted.
The bandits, who stormed the community around 8:50pm numbering about 10, with AK47 rifles and other dangerous weapons, were said to be clad in black clothes, with one of them masked.
Community member, Mohammed, who narrowly escaped the abduction, told The Nation that the bandits started by picking the Imam and his family, who they met outside the community Juma’at Mosque, before proceeding to a-four-flat compound where they kidnapped the new couple.
Mohammed said: “I was inside my own apartment when the bandits stormed our compound. At first, when they started banging the new couple’s door, because they went to their apartment straight, I thought they were security people who came to arrest my neighbours.
“They started banging his door and shouting ‘Dan Iska ba za ka fito ba?’, meaning ‘idiot, will you not come out? That was when I realised that they were kidnappers. So, when they could not force the door open, they broke his window and broke the burglary proof.
“On gaining entrance into the apartment, the bandits tried to open the door, but they could not open it. So, they brought the couple out through the broken window. They injured the husband and blood was dripping out of his body.
“Then, they made attempt to enter my own apartment too. They had broken the glass window, but as they were busy hitting the burglary proof to break into my apartment, one of the vigilantes in the community fired gunshot into the air. On hearing the gunshot, the bandits became uncomfortable. Then, they left our compound.”
The Imam, Malam Suleiman and his neighbour, Malam Musa, who were picked while they were relaxing with Arabian tea outside the mosque premises, escaped while they were being led out of the community into the bush.
“The new bride, who was said to have gone through a surgery recently, was abandoned in the bush by the kidnappers when she could not cope with the pace of their trekking in the bush, While, the Imam’s wife was also released when her baby’s cry almost exposed the bandits to vigilance group members around Kakura area.
“The bandits eventually succeeded in going away with the new groom identified as Ibrahim and two of the Imam’s children (15-year-old Abba and his younger brother). They were yet to establish contact with the family at press time.
Soldiers and policemen attached to the Millennium Strike Force and Police Division were reported to have arrived the scene minutes after the bandits had led the captives into the bush.
Police spokesman ASP Mansur Hassan asked our correspondent to call back later at press time, “as the police are still trying to establish the true account of the incident.”
