Breaking: Bandits Kidnap Four Worshipers in a Church Night Vigil-Report
…Released Them in Less Than 24 hours
By Raphael Ekpang
Abuja (Core Reporters) Core Reporters report that about four worshippers who were in a church night vigil on Friday were kidnapped in the early hours of Saturday in Abuja. And they were Released in less than 24 hours.
Report said that members of Life Hope Salvation Ministry, Jikwoyi, Abuja, FCT , went for a night vigil on Friday night been the first Friday of the month of February only to be attacked by five armed bandits and kidnapped four members.
Eye witness account has it that, the vigil began at 9pm, and at exactly 1am five armed bandits with sophisticated weapons stormed the church in a Rambo style and kidnapped four worshippers, and also catered away about three mobile handsets and some ATMs belonging to some members who escaped their kidnapping.
The eye witness further explained that the men of the underworld first disconnected the lights in the church auditorium when they unplugged the wire from the generator and prompted the attention of some members who went out to fix the problem only to be confronted with gun shots.
Core Reporters report that as soon as the bandits started firing from all angles there was pandemonium in the church and worshippers started running for their dear lives. However, the bandits entered the church auditorium shooting spuriodically on the air and ordered some members who couldn’t run out to lying down, thereafter they carried one young man, and with about two handsets and ATMs and went out, and in the process stumbled on three of the lady worshippers who thought they have escaped the attack and kidnapped them also.
The eye witness noted that about 30 minutes after the operation, men of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) of the Jikwoyi division who were contacted promptly responded to the distress call.
Core Reporters report that some live bullets were recovered by the police at the scene of the incident.
Meanwhile, several calls put across to the FCT police command spokesperson, SP Josephine Adeh could not go through as her line was constantly busy.
As at the time of filing this report the kidnapped church worshippers have been reunited with their families after spending 20-hour with the kidnappers in the bush.
As at the time of filing this report, Core Reporters could not ascertained how much was paid as ransom for their release, but we were aware, the kidnappers contacted the mother of two of the kiddnaped girls and the senior Pastor of the church, Denis Mongba and demanded a ransom of N30million and later reduced to N10m and N500, 000 respectively.
Core Reporters understand that the Area Commander visited the scene of the crime led by the divisional police officer (DPO) Jikwoyi division for first hand information.
