Early Sunday morning, bandits invaded the Guto area of Bwari Area Council in Abuja, killing one person and kidnapping four others. The attack began around 12:30 AM and affected several communities including Guto, Piyawe, Tudun-Fulani, and Sabon Gari.
Eyewitnesses reported that over 30 armed men split into two groups to carry out the attack. They entered Piwaye through the swamps, then moved into other areas. One group attacked Guto, while the other struck Piyawe. During the raid, the bandits killed Madam Alice, a woman in her mid-40s who was visiting her sick mother, and kidnapped a man from the same area.
Additionally, two individuals were abducted from their homes in Guto and another person was kidnapped from Tudun-Fulani, which is close to the council Secretariat.
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A resident, who chose to remain anonymous, described the incident: “What happened last night was very unfortunate. We couldn’t sleep from 12:30 AM when they started until almost three o’clock. Initially, we thought it was the vigilance teams who were shooting, but when it became persistent, we knew these people were back again.”
The resident mentioned that the attackers were well-armed, adding, “We have had peace for some time now but unfortunately they have resumed and this time with full force because it was two groups that entered Bwari that night. One was in Guto while the other group was in Piyawe. It was obvious those ones came prepared, because the sounds we heard through the night, suggested they came with sophisticated weapons.”
Another resident of Tudun-Fulani criticized the police response, saying that despite multiple calls to the divisional headquarters in Bwari, no security forces arrived to challenge the bandits.
Tudun-Fulani said, “We felt so helpless because the kidnappers operated for over an hour, but there was no police or army to challenge them. I called my neighbor when the shooting started and he said he had already called the police. We waited for them to show up for 20 minutes and when we didn’t hear sounds of sirens, we called again but they kept telling us they were on their way. We never saw them until the kidnappers left on their own.”