28 people were abducted by gunmen in Plateau State’s Zak community in Bashar District’s Wase Local Government Area (LGA).
Children between the ages of 8 and 9 are among the victims.
Residents claimed that two teachers, two students, and an Islamic scholar were among the victims. On Tuesday night, they were taking a bus from a village close to Bashar to Sabon Layi to pray in Maulidi.
Around 8 o’clock, according to reports, they left their neighborhood before running into the kidnappers.
Around 9:30 p.m., when passersby noticed the victims’ abandoned car by the side of the road and raised a town alarm, the abduction was not made public until about 10:00 p.m. Later, when they rushed to the scene, community members discovered footprints belonging to the kidnappers in Kukawa, a forested settlement about a kilometer away from the car’s location.
Shafi Sambo, the youth leader of Wase Local Government Area, described the incident as a moment when the community called security agencies right away.
We later reported to the military for their footprints in the forest. He claimed that the army mobilized and tracked the kidnappers, but no results were obtained.
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According to him, the abductors may have trekked with the victims for about a kilometer before taking them on motorcycles, based on tracks found along the way.
Sambo claimed that the kidnappers had not contacted the families or demanded a ransom at the time of filing this report.
“Up until now, they have not received any calls.” According to him, “the community is still waiting and praying” for information about the abductions.
He noted that a large number of people had never been abducted at once because residents have long lived in fear as a result of frequent road kidnappings.
Locals frequently avoid the road or only use it on military escort, according to Sambo, as a result of previous mishaps.
The Plateau State Government is making new efforts to improve community-based security in response to the incident.
Governor Caleb Mutfwang addressed the passing-out ceremony for 1, 450 members of Operation Rainbow, the state-owned security organization, on Monday, reiterating his administration’s commitment to peace and security.
Without peace, there wouldn’t be any meaningful advancement or prosperity, according to Governor Mutfwang, who described security as “the bedrock upon which sustainable development is built.”
He claimed that the success of his administration’s efforts to combat insecurity depended on effective collaboration with traditional security forces and intelligence gathering.
The governor stated that regardless of religion, ethnicity, or background, Operation Rainbow was intended to protect all citizens and that the state would continue to invest in security infrastructure, training, intelligence, and strategic partnerships.
He further disclosed that the government and the Nigerian Air Force have collaborated to install helicopters for security surveillance, particularly in rural areas during the holiday season.
