Five Rescued After Police Engaged Gunmen In Abuja

The federal capital territory (FCT) police command says five out of 10 residents abducted at a remote community in the nation’s capital have been rescued.

The residents were abducted after some gunmen stormed Tungan Maje, a community bothering the FCT and Niger state, on Thursday morning.

They were said to have overpowered the local vigilante group in the area.

Anjuguri Manzah, spokesman of the FCT police command, however, said some of the victims were rescued after a police team responded to a distress call.

“The Command wishes to inform the public that when it received a distress call on Kidnap of some persons on 10th September, 2020 at about 0130hrs in Tungan Maje, a village bordering FCT and Niger state, a joint team of Police operatives from the Command Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Rapid Response Squad and Zuba Police Division responded swiftly to the occasion,” he said in a statement.

“During a fierce gun confrontation with the heavily armed hoodlums, the Police team successfully rescued five of the kidnapped victims.”

Manzah added that the police are on the trail of the kidnappers whom he said escaped to Niger state.

“The FCT Police Command wishes to assure the public that protection of lives and property remains the core of its policing mandate and it will continue to inject fresh strategies that will place the security of the Federal Capital Territory at its optimum,” he said.

The abduction is the latest of the many incidents of insecurity that have plagued northern parts of the country in recent months.