Natives protest kidnappings in Abuja community

Some natives of Jahi community in Abuja on Monday protested over incessant kidnapping of children in the area. The protesters, who were mostly Gbagyi women, gathered in front of the village chief’s palace, demanding the release of the kidnapped children. They wore native attires and carried placards with the inscriptions such as ‘Free Amir and […]

Some natives of Jahi community in Abuja on Monday protested over incessant kidnapping of children in the area.

The protesters, who were mostly Gbagyi women, gathered in front of the village chief’s palace, demanding the release of the kidnapped children.

They wore native attires and carried placards with the inscriptions such as ‘Free Amir and Suleiman’, ‘Enough of Incessant Abductions of Children in Abuja community’, ‘IGP Come to Our Rescue’.

The father of two missing children, Yahuza Ibrahim, who spoke with newsmen during the protest, said two of his male children had been missing for over two weeks.

He said the incident happened at about 10am while he was at his work place, explaining that his sister called to tell him that his two sons, who were three and five years old went missing while playing in front of the house.

He said since the incident on October 28th, he was yet to know the whereabouts of his children,  even as he said he reported the incident to the village chief and the police outpost in the community.

“I even reported the incident to the police at the community outpost, and the police promised that they will search for them but up till this moment, I have not heard anything from the police again,” he said.

Yahuza said the two missing children were the only ones God has blessed him with and appealed to the police and members of the general public to assist him in tracing the whereabouts of the missing children.

A women leader of the community, Hajara Musa Gaisan, who was among the protesters, said the disappearance of the  two children had thrown the entire family members into mourning, adding that the grandmother of the two missing children fell sick and later died as a result of shock.

She said the grandmother died six days after the children disappeared.

“Honestly, we are sad over the disappearance of the two children. Imagine that the grandmother of the  two missing children fell sick and died because she could not take it,” she said.

The spokesman of the Coalition of Abuja Indigenous Association (CAIA) Yunusa Ahmadu Yusuf, who also spoke with newsmen, said the protest was to draw the attention of the media over cases of kidnapping in some Abuja communities.

He said it was unfortunate that kidnappings were happening in satellite towns and slums in the heart of the city,  but that the security agencies were not doing enough to tame the ugly situation.

“We have realised the increase of insecurity within our communities in the FCT, which is now graduating to the heart of the city. In Gwagwalada we have had series of kidnappings, in Kwali also where the family members had to pay ransom,” he said.

The group added that some few month ago, a reverend father was abducted and later killed by gunmen. They said the protest became necessary for the media to assist in drawing the attention of the government.

The spokesman lamented the absence of security in rural communities in the FCT, saying that “the police seem to direct their energy to stop people from protesting within the city centre without going to the rural communities to see what people were going through.”

Also speaking, the village chief of Jahi, Alhaji Adamu Dogo, said the community had witnessed cases of missing children within the last one year.

He said the cases of children disappearing had become a nightmare to him and his subjects, and appealed to the police and other security agencies to assist in tracing the missing children.

“Honestly, the recent kidnapping of two children who are from the same father is quite shocking and we are appealing to the government to help us trace the whereabouts of these children and return them  to us,” the village chief said.

Effort to speak with the FCT police command spokesman, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, was unsuccessful as he did not pick calls put across to him and did not reply a text message sent to his phone.