A suspected bandit has shot to death a 52-year-old farmer, Ismaila Bataku, in Agwe community in Kwali Ward of Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
A resident, Yakubu Musa, said the incident happened around 10 am on Saturday when Bataku was working on his farm.
He said, “I believe the assailant was hiding in the bush near the farm when Bataku was clearing his farm and targeted and shot him on the head.
“Bataku’s wife was gathering firewood a few metres away when she heard the gunshot and ran to her husband and discovered that he was shot on the head and was already dead.
“She ran back home and raised alarm and some residents mobilised to the farm and conveyed the corpse back home and buried it.
“However, before the corpse was conveyed home, policemen from Kwaku Police Outpost were informed about the incident and they came and observed it at the farm.”
The spokesperson of the FCT Police Command, ASP Maryam Yusuf, was yet to reply to an SMS sent to her to confirm the incident.
In a related development, suspected kidnappers have abducted a woman identified as Mama Sunday at Dangara community in Wako Ward of Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
A neighbour of the victim said the incident happened around 9.pm on Friday when gunmen invaded the community.
He said although the woman’s husband was at home when the gunmen invaded the house, they preferred to abduct her.
Another resident of the community simply identified as Usman said policemen at an outpost a few metres from the victim’s house ran away when they heard the heavy gunfire.
He further said the kidnappers probably got intelligence that the vigilantes who normally patrolled the community from neighbouring Gada-Biyu village had stopped because of non-payment of their monthly stipends by the community.
Meanwhile, the FCT Commissioner of Police (CP), Bala Ciroma, has disclosed that the command had deployed overt and covert strategies to curb banditry and other criminal activities across the territory.
CP Ciroma who was quoted in a statement by the command’s spokesperson, ASP Maryam Yusuf, also said the reassurance was necessitated because of publications in some newspapers suggesting that some areas within the FCT were vulnerable to Boko Haram attacks.
He, therefore, urged members of the public to provide useful information to the police and other security agencies rather than circulating messages which were capable of causing undue panic.
He implored residents of the FCT to report suspicious movements or make distress calls to the command’s emergency telephone numbers: 08032003913, 08061581938, 07057337653 and 08028940883.
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