SOME residents of Abaji Area Council, FCT, have called on security operatives to beef up security operations and conduct more patrols to save lives and property in the area.

The residents made the call in an interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday, following the recent kidnap of a nursing mother and three others by some unknown gunmen in the area.

Mr Amos Wodi, a resident in the area, said a nursing mother, her 40-day-old baby and three others were allegedly abducted in the early hours of Monday at Naharati, a suburb of Abaji town.

He said that the unknown gunmen allegedly invaded the area and forced their way into some houses from where their victims were abducted.

“We have had several security challenges before this incident; there was a time armed robbers attacked a bank and the entire town was held to ransom.

“Now everyone is afraid that they may be attacked anytime because cases of kidnapping and armed robbery is becoming worrisome.

“We therefore call on security operatives to adequately beef up their operations to save lives and property in the area,” he said.

Mr Danjuma Mark, another resident attributed the security challenges in the area to its location, bordering Niger, Kogi and Nasarawa states.

He said that some residents are always scared to give information to the police for fear of being exposed, urging the security operatives to do more on intelligence gathering.

Mark alleged that most of the cases of kidnappings were being masterminded by some powerful persons, thereby making the residents to live in fear.

Mrs Sarah Kaka, said there was need for synergy between the police and other security agencies to effectively fight kidnapping in the area.

She, however, said that though the police had conducted creditably, more was still required from them.

Earlier, Mr Bala Ciroma, the Commissioner of Police in charge of FCT, at a stakeholders meeting on Thursday in Abaji, reiterated the Command’s readiness to tackle kidnapping in the area.

Ciroma said the command would do all within its powers in collaboration with other security agencies to address security challenges in the council.

The Commissioner of Police called for the cooperation and support of the people in the area to enable police provide adequate security for them.

BE

– June 20, 2019 @ 17:55 GMT |