Communities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and neighbouring communities in Niger state have continued to groan as insecurity in the areas shows no sign of abating.
As a matter of fact, the residents of the affected communities in both FCT and Niger states can no longer sleep with their two eyes closed, not even the deployment of a team of policemen has curtailed the activities of the daredevil bandits.
For instance, things are no longer at ease in Garam community in Niger state. The community shares a boundary with the Kuduru, another community under Bwari Area Council, FCT.
Most of the residents in the community have abandoned their houses. They have been forced to rent houses in other places in Bwari following renewed kidnappings in the area.
On June 29, bandits invaded Garam, kidnapping five persons. Less than a week after, on July 10, a woman and her three children were kidnapped.
The latest incident shook the whole community, which forced people to abandon their homes.
The bandits, who claimed to be from Zamafara attacked the family after gathering information about the family from those kidnapped earlier before they struck.
On that fateful day, TheHintsNews gathered that the bandits came at about 1:00 a.m, forcefully removed the burglary, while the husband was forced to flee to seek help from vigilantes, soldiers and police deployed to the community.
“By the time we came, they had already kidnapped my family. We went on their trail throughout the night, we later lost track. They made contact the following day demanding for N50 million. Few days later, it was reduced to N10 million,” the agonised husband who preferred anonymity said.
Surprisingly, kidnapped victims who escaped from the bandits said they swore that they were still coming back to kidnap more people. They said not even a detachment of police and soldiers would stop them.
Sadly, the number of informants on the payroll of the bandits in Garam has made the community more volatile.
As if that wasn’t enough, bandits in the early hours of Saturday, July 20 descended on Jibi, a community close to Dei-Dei in the FCT, kidnapping five persons.
Jibi, is a community populated by retired policemen and soldiers. The ex servicemen went on the trail of the kidnappers but were unable to rescue the victims as they lost track of them.
A source in the community revealed that a detachment of police was deployed to the area months ago due to cases of kidnapping.
Similarly, on July 17, armed robbers ransacked a community close to a military camp in Bwari. However, the quick intervention of police and soldiers saved the day.
Recently, residents of another community adjacent to the same military camp in Bwari were not so lucky as they lost their valuables to the men of the underworld.
While people of the affected communities have decided to move out due to fears that the bandits might come back as promised, the fact that nowhere appears to be safe in FCT has left more people depressed. Some, however, are taking the risk of packing to other areas, some have resolved to go back to their states. The question is, where is safe in Nigeria today?