Some residents of Grow Home Estate, located opposite Champion Royal Assembly Church, Chikakpere, Kubwa, Abuja, were kidnapped by yet-to-be-identified kidnappers on Friday.

This happened on Friday evening, when the residents had returned from their day’s jobs, a source told FIJ.

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The source, who asked not to be named, said that the kidnappers dispossessed some residents of their valuables before taking them away.

“The residents initially thought the attackers were mere armed robbers, as they entered some of their homes and took some of their belongings at gunpoint,” he told FIJ.

He said one of the victims works with the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Works, Abuja.

“They took them to a point in the estate and and some of them went back to another house and kidnapped a pastor and his family. In all, they kidnapped about 15 persons that night from the estate. However, the pastor’s brother escaped through the fence,” said the source.

“When all this was happening, it was only estate night guards that put up resistance.

“One man in the estate employed the dispersal method of firing a gun into the air, and that made them to leave at the time they left. If not for his effort, they would have kidnapped more than 15 persons.”

Asked if the kidnappers had contacted the victims’ relatives, the source said that had not been done and nobody knew the location of the victims.

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Josephine Adeh, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police public relations officer, confirmed the attack to FIJ, saying the police were working to rescue and reunite the victims with their families.

There have been several kidnappings in the Kubwa area of Abuja in the last two years. A corps member was killed during an attack in December 2022.