A resident of Chida community in Kwali Area Council of the FCT, Ishaya Danlami, has said the kidnappers who invaded the community on Thursday and abducted their village chief and 13 of his subjects operated for over two hours unchallenged, smoking weeds, before herding their victims into the forest.
City & Crime had reported that kidnappers, on Thursday, invaded Chida, neighbouring Bukpe village, and abducted the village chief, John Kwayidami, and 13 of his subjects at gunpoint.
Danlami, who spoke when our reporter visited the community on Monday, said the kidnappers, numbering over 30 with some of them wearing army uniforms, broke up into groups and moved from house to house to pick up their victims.
“I was asleep under a hut because of the heat when I heard the gunshot, I crawled quietly and climbed a mango tree, from which I watched how the kidnappers moved from house to house selecting people to take away,’’ he said.
He added, “While some of the gangs went into the chief’s house and brought him out alongside his three children and kept them in front of the palace, some of them were smoking weed, waiting for their other gang members to come with other victims before they herded them into the forest.”
Meanwhile, a source who is a family member of the abducted chief said contact was established with the kidnappers last Saturday and that they were demanding N19 million ransom.
“Actually, the leader of the kidnappers called through a family member of the chief, and demanded N19 million. That is, among the abducted victims, 10 are to bring N1.5 million each, while the chief and his three sons are to raise N2 million each,” he said.
There was no official response from the spokeswoman of the FCT police command, DSP Adeh Josephine, on the incident as of the time of filing the report.
