Wike Rewards Local Vigilance Group for Rescuing Four Victims from Kidnappers

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. Nyesom Wike, has rewarded members of local vigilance groups in Kwali Area Council for rescuing four kidnapped victims.

Wike gifted a vehicle and cash to the security outfit as a motivation when the rescued victims were presented to him at Kaita Gembu, a community in Kwali, when he visited the area to inspect an ongoing 11km road project. The minister charged residents to collaborate with FCTA towards elimination of all criminal elements in the territory.

He also called on community leaders to shun individuals who want to disguise as anti-government protesters but have the intention to unleash mayhem.

Wike said: “I don’t know anything about protest and those who are protesting. We have said before that the Renewed Hope Agenda is not just for the city, it is also for the rural areas.

“So we are happy, it is to tell some Nigerians who don’t understand and who just don’t have the opportunity to go and see what is happening.

“If you come to the FCT, you will appreciate the fact that it is working, and if FCT is working, why are you telling its residence to come and protest.”  

He added that while the government appreciated the level of hunger in the country, it made sense to sit down and talk about it, than to give room for hooligans to perpetrate crime against innocent Nigerians.

“No right thinking government will fold its arms and allow people to come and cause mayhem, destroy properties and then we go back to square one,” he said.

The Chairman, Kwali Area Council, Mr. Danladi Chiya, disclosed that the kidnappers abducted their victims from their homes in Kuje Area Council and smuggled them into Kwali forest.

One of the rescued victims, Mr. Isaac Gbemu, said that they we were in their house around midnight when they heard gunshots.

Gbemu said that they initially thought that it was armed robbers, until the invaders broke into the compound and they realised that they were kidnappers.  

He said: “They took us away that night and brought us to the bush where we don’t know, and we have spent three days before the vigilantes rescued us this morning.”