How Kuje’s rough terrain provides cover for kidnappers

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the past few months recorded many cases of kidnapping, especially in the satellite towns. But Kuje Area Council has been the worst hit by the activities of the hoodlums who demanded for ransom worth millions of naira before their victims regained freedom. Kuje Area Council, with a landmass of […]

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the past few months recorded many cases of kidnapping, especially in the satellite towns.

But Kuje Area Council has been the worst hit by the activities of the hoodlums who demanded for ransom worth millions of naira before their victims regained freedom.

Kuje Area Council, with a landmass of about 1,644 and population of 97,367 (according to the 2006 census), apart from its proximity to Abuja City Centre, has the highest number of villages – 173 communities – and a high influx of people.

A cross-section of residents of some of the affected communities while speaking with Aso Chronicle expressed divergent views on why kidnappers seemed to have concentrated their nefarious activities on the area council’s communities.

The people spoken to expressed divergent views on the killings and kidnappings in the area, with some attributing them to the bad condition of roads connecting the villages; others blaming political undertones and yet others pointing accusing fingers at informants within the communities as those to blame.

A prominent traditional ruler in the council, who preferred anonymity, said the suspected kidnappers chose villages in the area as their hideout because of the bad state of roads across communities in the area and the dense forests.

He said Kuje has over 100 villages, thick forests and bad road network, which attracted the kidnappers. “Even when they kidnap someone, for example in Abaji or Kwali or even from Kogi State, they move the victim down to a forest in Kuje village because the terrain is bad,” he said.

He said though some villages in other area councils, especially Gwagwalada, Kwali and Abaji have witnessed cases of kidnapping, Kuje has suffered the most attacks by kidnappers within the last few months due to the bad terrain and forest which the bandits liked as hideout.

“In fact, there are communities under my chiefdom that now hardly go to their farms, especially villages that kidnappers attacked recently. And whenever they must go to farm, they go in groups for fear of being kidnapped or killed,” he said.

The traditional ruler noted that apart from farming, other socio-economic activities were also affected by the activities of the hoodlums, saying women who take crops to the markets are now afraid because of the activities of kidnappers.

A stakeholder in Kuje, Alhaji Usman Mohammed, who is a native of Zagabutu but resident in Kuje town, lamented the absence of viable infrastructure such as good access roads, communication network and water in the area.

He said, “Are you saying if the roads linking Kuje town to the villages are motorable and there is communication network, kidnappers will kidnap someone from another place and bring the victim to hide in Kuje forest? It is not possible.”

Alhaji Mohammed, who also noted that it was wrong for people to claim that the spate of kidnapping had political undertones, said, “Most of the incidents were through some informants within us. That is why when someone is kidnaped, you will hear how the kidnappers will be demanding for ransom and even telling the relatives what they should go and sell in order to raise the ransom,” he added.

Speaking to our reporter, a younger brother of a former chairman of Kuje Area Council, Alhaji Mohammed Abdullahi Galadima, who regained his freedom from kidnappers in his Rubochi village recently, said the suspected kidnappers who held him for one week were Fulani men.

He said the kidnappers, who were 11 in number, spoke Fulani fluently throughout the time they held him captive, adding that they must have moved down to the FCT from elsewhere because they did not look like locals.

Also speaking, the Agabe of Ugbadda-Gwargwada, Alhaji Hussaini Agabi Mam, said his chiefdom was disturbed by the upsurge in kidnapping and killing incidents in the area.

He said kidnappers have taken over most of the forests in the rural communities as their ‘safe haven’ because of the bad terrain, which features hills, gullies, streams and rivers.

He said Kuje Area Council’s largest land mass has unfortunately given the kidnappers comfortable hideout.

He said lack of good access roads to link neighbouring villages has been a major challenge facing his subjects.

The traditional ruler added that the activities of kidnappers have also affected socio-economic activities in the area, especially farming, saying some farmers have abandoned their farms for fear of being abducted.

Fear of kidnapping has also affected both primary and secondary education in his chiefdom, he said, and recalled how a teacher at the Government Junior Secondary School (GJSS) Kwaku was kidnapped while riding a motorcycle from Kuje to Kwaku recently.

“In fact, if you can recall in this my palace I told you that the major problem my people are facing is lack of good access roads, because it is as a result of the bad roads that the kidnappers have turned most of the forests in the rural communities to their hideout,” he said.

“If someone is kidnapped here today, security agents will not find it easy to access their hideout because of the bad terrain,” Alhaji Hussaini added.

He therefore called on the FCT administration to open up and grade rural roads as well as construct bridges across the streams, saying that will help to checkmate the activities of the bandits.

Other communities attacked by suspected kidnappers included Toton-Gabiya, Kwaku, Gadoro, Pegi, Agwe and Gatsana all under Kuje Area Council.

However, the chairman of the council, Abdullahi Suleiman Sabo, had following the recent kidnappings in Pegi and Tika Junction in Rubochi, where the wife of an INEC administrative secretary was abducted, blamed the incidents on “unscrupulous” opponents whom he accused of trying to destabilise his administration.

Alhaji Sabo, also during the visit of the Minister of State for FCT, Hajiya Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, to sympathize with families of kidnapped victims at Pegi, attributed the attack to those he described as enemies bent on causing unnecessary insecurity in the area.