The police and the Nigeria Civil Defence Corps have launched a manhunt for the gunmen who abducted nine persons, including a civil defence officer and a 12-year-old boy in Pegi, a community in the Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The attackers, who were dressed in military camouflage, were said to have ambushed their victims on Monday while returning home.
They reportedly shot and injured a civil defence officer before taking away the nine persons.
Our correspondent gathered that the kidnappers had called the families of their victims with a demand of N10m ransom.
The NSCDC spokesman, Emma Okeh, said the civil defence officer, Tosin Ayeni, was on his way home when he was abducted while his colleague, Aku Attah, was shot.
He said, “We have launched an operation with the police to rescue the victims. Since the kidnappers called the families of their victims and demanded N10m ransom, we have not heard from them again.”
The Chairman of Pegi Community Development Association, Mr Taiwo Aderibigbe, said the attackers also shot at two vehicles including the driver of a pick-up van who sustained injuries.
A resident of the community, Mr Isaac Musa, said the incident happened around 8.15pm.
A former chairman of PECDA, Mr Wasiu Oriola, said the gunmen opened fire on a Toyota Corolla with number plate, ABJ 805 PR, driven by Ayeni.
The FCT police spokesman, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, said policemen had been deployed in search of the fleeing gunmen and their victims.
Manzah in a statement said, “The command of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, is making concerted effort to rescue the kidnapped persons.”