On January 23, 2021, unknown gunmen abducted 7 children and 3 staff of Rachael’s Home for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, owned by Rev. Dr. Mrs. Racheal Alaje, in the Naharati Community, Abaji area council, Abuja.
Six days after, there is still no news of their release.
Roots TV visited the crime scene and spoke with some of the residents. According to witnesses, the incident occurred around 1:48 am on Saturday. The gunmen kidnapped children from the orphanage and also broke into some neighboring houses where family members were also abducted.
An eyewitness who spoke with Roots TV on anonymity said;
On that day, it happened exactly 1:48 am in the morning and it started at my own apartment, my own house here which is this house. They searched around, they went round they could not find me and my wife and my son. So when they finished from there they broke all the doors. My Oga door was not touched, my own door was not touched but other doors were touched. Then they now break-in. They passed through the big gate there, they passed through it. While in my room there I was watching them through my window I saw all, they were many, they were more than 50, they were battalions.
I didn’t see any car. Through my window I viewed all that transpired the way they were moving around, struggling to pick all the orphans and they succeeded in carrying 11 of them. They were 11, a woman having a baby, they released her on their way because they discovered she could not trek again and there was one of the orphans that one is like is not too strong so that one too cannot trek so they decided to leave her, three of them.
That night when I discovered that they are in this house (Orphanage home), I started struggling to see how I can reach people that I can call but most of the numbers I was calling were off. They did the operation for like 10mins, then the next thing I heard a gunshot that side on the other side not knowing that some groups were in the other house, that house there. In that house, they took a man and a wife. In that same compound because it is a 2 bedroom semi-detached house. On the other side, they took the wife and they left the man. The reason they left the man is that they shot the man and the man was seriously bleeding.
My neighbor, they took the man and the wife. In another compound close to that place again they took the man and left the wife.
When asked about the security situation in the community he said;
We don’t have security here.
He added that the issue of kidnapping has been a reoccurring situation in the Naharati community.
It has been. Here, this house, this man was taken one time ago and he paid a ransom.
We inquired about efforts made by the government to provide security, to which he said;
The DPO they are trying but I can say their effort is not good enough because if they are really ready to help the situation since that day there should have been a post (security post) here guarding this environment because we are not safe. As I speak to you now, in the night this place is a dead zone, you can’t see a single soul. You can’t see security. Please the government should work on security.
Another resident in the area who spoke with Roots TV said a 10 million naira ransom is being requested by the kidnappers.
The only thing I learned from the owner of Rachael’s Orphanage Home because the structure there is on rent, they rented it and as a good neighbor, I got in touch with him on the phone he only told me that as of the day before yesterday they (kidnappers) made a call to them because the uncle that takes care of the children was also carried away. He is the grown-up person among them. He called the owners of the orphanage from where the captives kept him and they were demanding N10m naira.
One of the victims identified as Nurudeen, a businessman into buying and selling of wears narrated his ordeal. He said;
They broke our window and they entered our house. They used one iron that is how they opened the door because I could not open it for them they shot with a gun. After they shot, I saw blood on my body. After that, they entered my house. I told them not to touch any other person because they are here for me so they didn’t take me. They saw blood on my body as the shirt I was wearing turned red. So they said they cannot take me that if they take me, I might die in the bush instead, they said they would take one of my wives so they took one of my wives up till now almost 5 days now, my wife is still with them there.
They called us after one day. They asked us to pay N10m naira. We don’t know which kind of help the government can render to us or the community with prayers and some help so that we can rescue our people, we don’t have the amount they are asking us for, seriously we don’t have it.
They spoke in Hausa to me, it is Fulani because I saw their face after they picked my wife.
The victim lamented on the lack of security which gives kidnappers the boldness to continue carrying out their criminal acts.
We in Naharati, Abaji, we do not have security seriously if those people come, they pick anyone they like and nobody can come to stop them.
While Residents and families rely on the government and security agencies for the speedy rescue of the kidnapped victims, it is hoped the dire security situation in the community and Abaji as a whole will be addressed.