On Sunday, bandits ambushed drivers on the Abuja–Kaduna expressway, kidnapping more than thirty individuals.
The kidnapping happened in the Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State in Dogon-Fili, close to Katari, along the Kaduna-Abuja route.
This is the first security breach along the main Abuja–Kaduna road artery in over ten months.
23 persons were kidnapped on March 1, 2023, which was the most recent occurrence on the road to be reported.
Senator Shehu Sani, a former legislator, said on his X page that two of his buddies barely avoided being kidnapped by the bandits.
Additionally, he claimed that despite the fact that there were more security personnel on the route than in the past, the bandits nevertheless obstructed traffic and continued to operate for a while.
According to Sani, two of his friends from the ruling and opposition parties who were traveling from Kaduna back to Abuja barely made it out of the robbers’ ambush.
Sani said: “Just when we felt safer, last night (Sunday) kidnappers returned to the Kaduna-Abuja Road. They blocked the road and abducted scores of persons around 9pm near Katari village. Two of my honourable friends from both the ruling and opposition parties had to run through the bush like Usain Bolt. But despite this incident, there is a stronger security presence along the route than it used to be in the past.”
According to Suleiman Dan Baba, a resident of Katari, the bandits, armed with AK-47 rifles, broke out of the bush around 9:33 p.m. and closed both lanes of traffic. They continued to operate for almost forty-five minutes.
In addition, he described how the robbers fired shots and caused some cars’ tires to burst, forcing drivers—including those operating commercial vehicles—to come to a stop.
“The bandits forced travellers to alight from their vehicles at gunpoint, before moving them into the bush,” the source said.
Another resident of Jere, Samaila Shehu, said the incident happened at a distance of about one kilometre away from Jere, and over 30 travellers were abducted at the scene.
