Gunmen have invaded the Mararaba Akunza community area of the Federal University of Lafia in the Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State and abducted four people believed to be students of the institution.
Daily Trust learnt that the incident occurred between 7-8pm when it was raining heavily on Saturday night.
An eyewitness, who spoke to our reporter in confidence, said the gunmen came in their large number and started shooting sporadically into the air before abducting their victims to an unknown destination.
It was gathered that the kidnappers have made contact with the family of the victims around 11.30pm last night, demanding N25 million ransom.
The source said: “The gunmen came in their large number and started shooting sporadically into the air, scaring residents of Mararaba Akunza community, before abducting four students.
“But nobody knows whether they are students of Federal University of Lafia.”
“It was raining heavily on Saturday night when the suspected kidnappers came in with their AK 47 riffles and carried out their operation successfully that lasted for several hours and succeeded in kidnapping some students, but no one knows whether they are students of Federal University of Lafia.”
Our correspondent learnt that one of the victims is Zafir Yahaya, the first son of a prominent politician in the state, Mr Yahaya Adams, popularly called Majo.
When our correspondent visited the Anti-Kidnapping Unity, Police Area Command in Lafia at exactly 11:am on Sunday, he saw the Chief Security (CSO) of the Federal University of Lafia, Wing commander Umar Mohammed (rtd) alongside some students of the institution making a complaint before the OC anti-Kidnapping, Mr Eyoh Anette.
While confirming the incident to our correspondent in an interview on Sunday, the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr Abubakar Ibrahim, denied that those victims were students of the Federal University of Lafia.
He said: “None of our students was kidnapped by suspected kidnappers. The incident happened outside the university.
“No report from any parent regarding the abduction of their children schooling in our institution,” he stated.
The Police Public Relation Officer in the state, ASP Nansel Ramhan, said the command only had about the incident on social media, but immediately drafted men to the scene of the incident to investigate how it happened.
He said no official complaint has been made yet to the command, assuring that an investigation was ongoing to unravel the rationale behind the invasion of the area.
He said no arrest has been made to that effect.He said: H“The command is yet to receive an official complaint from the institution.”
[Dailytrust]