Kidnappers have reportedly killed three of eleven residents of the Sagwari Estate Layout in the Dutsen-Alhaji area of the Federal Capital Territory, including a 13-year-old secondary school student identified as Folorunsho Ariyo.
Kidnappers had invaded the Sagwari community on Sunday, January 7, at about 7:30 pm, and kidnapped 11 residents, including a mother and her four children, and a receptionist and barman from a nearby hotel.
A staff member of the hotel had narrated to our correspondent that the gunmen had invaded the community dressed as military men and taken their victims up to the mountain while a pastor escaped, adding that joint efforts by the estate security and some police officers to trail the kidnappers had proved abortive, as they could neither find the kidnappers nor their victims.
The PUNCH gathered that the late Folashade, whose corpse was dumped alongside three others, including Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar, around a former military checkpoint behind Idah junction along the Bwari-Jere SCC Road in Kagarko Local Government Area of Kaduna State, was identified as the daughter of Ekiti state-born Chief Legal Officer of the National Universities Commission.
Meanwhile, the kidnappers, who cited delays in paying the demanded N60m ransom for each of the victims, have now reportedly increased their demand from the families of the remaining seven victims to N100m ransom for each one of the victims.
Details of Folashade’s death have caused an uproar among Nigerians, who have now called on the authorities to bring an end to insecurity in the nation’s capital, noting that the territory had never been so unsafe.
An X user, @Aginas tweeted “It has never been this worse in Abuja. Elections truly have consequences. Some people’s bad decision has plunged the nation into a failed state”.
@Akintollgate, in his post, stated: “Hearing about the murder of Folorunsho Ariyo alongside Nabeeh is just devastating & heart-breaking! Two promising souls with a lot of life ahead of them murdered by some imbeciles. It’s so upsetting!”. Another user, @bamidele_oye, wrote, “A whole Federal Capital Territory is not safe, now imagine other states”.
As of the time of filing this report, the police have yet to issue any statements, even as the Force’s Public Relations Officer, ASP Josephine Adeh, said the police were “working on it.” At the same time, calls by our correspondent to the FCT’s Secretary of Security, Adamu Gwary, went unanswered.
One of the kidnap victims, Najeebah was reportedly killed by the men who abducted her and five other sisters in Abuja.
Najeebah and her sisters were abducted on January 9, alongside their father.
The gunmen later released their father, asking him to go get N60m as ransom for the release of her daughters before Friday, January 12.
In a bid to raise money, Nigerians were urged to donate whatever they have into a bank account, but not enough money was gathered as of Friday.
Consequently, the hoodlums reportedly killed Najeebah, the oldest of the six girls, and dumped her body somewhere for her parents to bury.
