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No fewer than 16 residents, including the wife of a local vigilante commander, her younger sister, and four children belonging to a pastor, have been abducted by gunmen during an attack on Peze community in the Byazhi area of Kubwa, Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Residents revealed on Friday that the heavily armed gunmen invaded the community on Tuesday night, operating between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., moving from house to house while attempting to force their way into homes.

One resident said the attackers had earlier assembled in an uncompleted building opposite his house before launching the operation.

“They actually came to my house on Tuesday. One of my neighbours was watching them from the window. They had gathered in an uncompleted building opposite my house, so they didn’t know someone was observing them,” the resident said.

“They started banging on my door and moving around the house, shouting to see if anyone would react. The way they operate is that once you respond, they break the window to gain entry.”

According to the resident, the gunmen threatened to kill occupants who refused to open their doors. “They will tell you that if you don’t open the door, they will break in through the window and kill everyone inside,” he said.

The source explained that when the kidnappers could not gain entry into his house, they moved to other homes where they eventually abducted several residents.

“In total, they kidnapped 16 people,” he added.

Among the victims were four children belonging to a pastor in the community. The resident said the pastor was not at home when the attackers struck.

“When I later went to the pastor’s house, he told me he had stepped out briefly. Before he could return, people started informing him that kidnappers were operating in the area. When he rushed back home, he discovered that four of his children had been taken, leaving only the youngest child behind,” the source said.

The attack also affected the family of a vigilante commander who had been assisting the community in resisting kidnappers.

The source said the commander had just left his house around 10 p.m. when a neighbour called to alert him that armed men had invaded the area.

“He had just left his house when his neighbour called him and said the attackers had entered one of the houses nearby,” the resident said.
He explained that the commander immediately rushed to the location mentioned by the neighbour, unaware that the gunmen had already surrounded his own residence.

“He ran to the place they mentioned, not knowing they had already surrounded his house,” the source said.

According to the resident, the attackers blocked the vigilante commander on the road when he attempted to return home and opened fire.

The gunmen later stormed his house, where they abducted his wife and her younger sister, who had reportedly come to visit the family three days earlier.

Residents said the woman had given birth less than 40 days earlier, and the kidnappers left the newborn baby behind.

“They even ate the food she had been cooking before abducting her,” the source added.

The resident explained that security operatives later arrived at the scene, but the kidnappers had already escaped with their victims.

He added that the abductors subsequently contacted the families to demand ransom for the release of those taken.

Residents said the community has experienced multiple kidnapping incidents in recent weeks, including an earlier abduction on January 4 that prompted locals to organise vigilante patrols.

Community members are now calling on security agencies and authorities of the Federal Capital Territory to urgently deploy more security personnel to the area and take decisive steps to curb the growing wave of kidnappings.

As of the time of filing this report, attempts to reach SP Josephine Adeh, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, were unsuccessful.

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The Police Command in Lagos State has nabbed a 30-year-old man who allegedly sold his sister’s one-month-old baby for N2 million.

The suspect, a resident of Igbogbo in the Ikorodu area of the state, claimed that he sold his younger sister’s baby to fund their mother’s burial.

The mother of the baby reported the incident to the police leading to the arrest of the suspect.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Olohundare Jimoh, has ordered the transfer of the case to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, for further investigation.

Speaking with NAN on Friday in Lagos, the suspect who confessed to the act, blamed poverty for his actions.

The suspect claimed that he met the woman who bought the baby on Facebook.

“Hardship pushed me to commit the act. My sister agreed to the idea.

“I met the woman who is in need of a child on Facebook, and after negotiations, she asked me to bring the baby to Mile 2.

“I went to the location with my sister, where a man sent by the buyer collected the baby and the woman transferred N2 million to my account,” he said.

The suspect said he gave his sister N500,000 out the money and used the balance to organise their mother’s burial.

He said after the burial, his sister demanded the return of her baby, alleging that he used charms on her to convince her to sell the child.

“My sister later said she was not aware of the sale, and reported me to the police which led to my arrest,” he said.

The suspect said he did not know the buyer personally and had no information about her address, adding that her phone number had not been reachable since the purchase.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of SCID, Mr Dayo Akinbisehin, told NAN that investigations into the case were ongoing.

Akinbisehin said that the suspect would be charged to court upon conclusion of investigations.

(NAN)

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President Donald Trump said Friday that only Iran’s “unconditional surrender” would bring an end to the Middle East war, as Tehran was rocked by some of the heaviest US-Israeli strikes of the spiralling, week-long conflict.

Now in its seventh day, the war has embroiled nations beyond the region, upended the world’s energy and transport sectors, and brought chaos to even usually peaceful areas around the Gulf.

It has spread to Lebanon, whose prime minister warned of an impending humanitarian disaster as tens of thousands fled heavy Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Trump, who has given varying reasons for starting the war that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last weekend, promised to help rebuild the country’s economy if Tehran installed an “acceptable” new leader.

There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!),” he added.

In Tehran, crowds of men and women dressed in black, some carrying Iranian flags, gathered for the first Friday prayers since the start of the war, online footage showed.

Several loud explosions sent clouds of black smoke into Tehran’s sky, according to AFP journalists who described the day’s strikes as the heaviest yet on the capital.

It’s really very scary,” a Tehran businessman who gave his first name as Robert told AFP.

“Checkpoints have been put in place in the city to prevent looting and ensure control,” the 60-year-old said at the Armenian border with Iran.

Both Israel and the US warned on Friday that they were escalating their attacks on Iran.

“We have additional surprises ahead which I do not intend to disclose,” Israel’s military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said.

According to Iran’s health ministry, the US and Israeli strikes on the country have killed 926 people.

Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said on Friday that 30 percent of the dead were children. AFP could not independently verify either toll.

Iran has launched missile and drone attacks at Israel and Gulf states since the war began, with AFP journalists in Tel Aviv reporting hearing several blasts on Friday.

In Israel, at least 10 people have been killed, according to first responders there.

The US military has reported the deaths of six of its personnel.