ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
Gunmen numbering about 10 in the early hours of Friday morning, stormed Birshin Fulani, a suburb of Bauchi metropolis and kidnapped a nursing mother known as Mrs Rukayyat Odedoyin.
Residents of the area told journalists that the kidnappers who invaded the area at about 12am, forced themselves into the building by breaking the main door before gaining entrance into the house adding that “after succeeding in breaking into the house, they were said to have gone away with the woman whose husband had just been transferred to Kaduna”.
NATIONAL ACCORD had reported that barely two weeks ago, gunmen stormed the area and killed two people including a Senior staff of the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, Engineer Abubakar Muhammad.
Some other persons were also kidnapped in the attack. Days later, more people were also abducted there.
A neighbour of the kidnapped woman who refused to give her name told journalists that: “At about 12 midnight, we started hearing sporadic gunshots from different directions around our house. We woke up and thought of having cover.
“We then heard people jumping the fence trying to gain entrance into the house of our neighbour. They were there from 12 midnight to 1.30am. By the time we came out, they had left with the woman leaving behind her 3 children.”
Another resident of the area, Mohammed, told our correspondent that they made several calls to the Divisional Police Officer, Yelwa Division, and reported the matter but no security was sent to the area to rescue them.
Meanwhile, some residents of the area as early as 7am blocked the Bauchi-Dass road protesting the deteriorating security in the area.
When our correspondent got to the scene of the incident at about 7.20am, the road was still blocked with the residents mostly youths and women standing on the middle of the road.
Motorists on both sides of the road, those coming into Bauchi and those going out of the state metropolis, were stranded for the period of the protest. Community leaders and some elders were seen trying to calm the protesters who were vehement on their stand.
A resident, Abdullahi, who spoke to our correspondent at the scene, said that they were out to protest the deteriorating state of insecurity in the area.
He said: “This area that has been peaceful for a very long time is now becoming unsafe for us. We have lived here for long without facing any security challenges, but these days, the incident is becoming alarming.
“For the past days, we have experience many incidents of attacks here and we are no longer safe.
“Less than two weeks ago, gunmen stormed this area and attacked us. Two people including a Senior staff of the Federal Polytechnic were killed.
“After that, they moved from Birshin Fulani to Bayara which is just about one kilometer away and kidnapped some people there.
“As if that was not enough, the gunmen came back some days later to the same Birshin Fulani and attacked us again and kidnapped many other people.
“Our protest is to draw the state attention to the precarious situation we are in at the moment. We want the security agencies we have to secure our lives and properties.”
After about one hour of trying to calm the protesters down, they later succumbed and opened the road to free flow of traffic.
The Commissioner of Police, in Bauchi state, Sylvester Alabi, when contacted said: “The details are still sketchy and investigation is ongoing, after that, the outcome will be made public.”
Leave a Reply