Tobias Sylvester
Some gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have abducted an unspecified number of passengers travelling along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway for Eid-el-Kabir (sallah) celebrations.
According to Punch, the gunmen laid ambush on the travellers around Katari village in the Kagarko LGA, also in the state between 8am and 9am, on Thursday.
A source said that as they were travelling from Abuja into Kaduna to catch up with the Eid-el-Kabir celebrations slated for Friday, “we saw vehicles turning back.”
He said as the vehicles were turning back in droves and facing the direction of Abuja, “we had no option than to follow suit. It was when we got to a safe area that we learnt of the kidnapping incident.
“Although some of the travellers said they heard gunshots where some vehicles were parked along the roadsides, I didn’t hear the gunshots with my ears.
“But I can confirm to you that I saw a helicopter hovering around the Katari area from where the travellers were coming from,” he added.
Also a traveller, Alhaji Tanko, who drove on the road in his private car alongside his wife few hours after the alleged abduction took place, said they saw empty vehicles parked by the roadside.
“We actually saw about five to seven empty vehicles parked by the roadside close to Jere forest with their doors opened.
“We became worried and assumed that something bad must have happened to the occupants,” he said.
Another eyewitness who escaped the incident, identified as Mohammed Lawan, said the kidnappers attacked travelers heading to Kaduna around 8:50 am.
“We were not more than 250 meters to the point when we took a detour after sighting them.
“I sighted a Honda CRV 98 Model with its doors wide open and without anybody in it, an indication that they abducted the occupants,” he said.
When contacted, the spokesman of the Kaduna State Police Command, ASP Mohammed Jalige, could not confirm the incident as of the time of filing this report.
This is coming less than a week after gunmen suspected to be kidnappers killed a lawyer and abducted the wife and his son from their home at the Tollgate area along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, Chikun LGA of Kaduna State.
