Bandits Thursday night invaded Rafin Sanyin community in Suleja, Niger State, abducting no fewer than ten residents from their homes and beheading one other in the process.

Ahmed Uthman, whose elder brother Uthman Mohammed and another family member were among those kidnapped, narrated the incident to Peoples Gazette on Friday.

Narrating the ordeal, Ahmed said the assailants arrived in Suleja, a border town to Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, around 11:00 p.m.

He said, “we heard footsteps of people, gunshots and shouts of people in the houses they went to. They even slaughtered somebody. So everybody was afraid, panicking and making calls.

“They jumped the fence into our house and shot at the padlock of the gate then opened the gate for the rest to enter. They shot the front door to the parlour but the door couldn’t break. It was the shootings that woke up the kids who started crying. 

“They went to the window where the kids were, pointed guns at the kids, and spoke in Hausa saying, ‘damboroba, if you don’t come and open this door, we will kill all these kids now.’ So they shot into the air in the compound again, that was what made my brother afraid then he went to open the door for them.

“They tried to force open my room door, but they couldn’t. They left my door and went to the second room, they forcefully opened my sister’s room because she sleeps with the kids. Then they told her and my brother to follow them,” stated.

Mr Uthman also confirmed that soldiers on patrol arrived about 45 minutes after the bandits had left while the police, who had been called several times since the incident started, arrived by 7:00 a.m. next morning.

The state’s police spokesman, ASP Wasiu Abiodun, asked The Gazette to call back when reached for comments. He ignored calls put across to him afterwards.

As of the time of this report, the bandits are yet to contact any of the abductees’ families on payment of ransom to secure their release.

It is not immediately clear which criminal group is responsible for the abduction but the presence of the insurgent Boko Haram fighter has been reported in Niger in the past weeks. 

The Gazette reported how the jihadists hoisted its flag in Shiroro community near Nigeria’s major power plant and compelled residents to pay them royalties.

However, with the worrisome and unabated spate of kidnappings especially in Northern Nigeria, federal lawmakers on Wednesday, proposed a bill to punish anyone who pays ransom with a 15 year jail term.