Panic as gunmen invade Tunga Maje

• …Scores abducted, Police rescue 5

By Stanley Onyekwere

Residents of Tunga Maje community in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were thrown into serious pandemonium as unknown gunmen yesterday invaded the community, allegedly abducting scores of people in the process.
It was gathered that the gunmen that stormed the area early Thursday morning kidnapped over twenty people, after prolonged gun battle with the Vigilante group of the community, in Gwagwalada Area Council
This, according to resident of Tunga Maje, a village bordering FCT and Niger state, Ezekiel Denzi, said thrown the inhabitants of the area into serious panic mood.
Another resident of the community, Mrs Pious Bala said the shooting started in the community at about 1.a.m. and lasted more than an hour, while local vigilante group were overpowered.
She said: “It is very unfortunate that such an incident is happening in this hard period. We could not sleep throughout the night. It’s this morning that the vigilantes told us about 20 people were abducted,” he said.
“We have had last week that the authorities were informed of the entrance of Boko Haram members in Abuja but nobody took the report serious. We are appealing to goverment to help before all of us are killed”.
However, while confirming the incident, the FCT Police Command said a joint team of Police operatives from the Command Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Rapid Response Squad and Zuba Police Division responded swiftly to the attack.
A statement from Police Public Relations Officer, FCT Police Command, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, the Police team successfully rescued five of the kidnapped victims, during a fierce gun confrontation with the heavily armed hoodlums.
The Police also revealed that a concerted effort has been deployed to rescue the remaining five victims that are still with the hoodlums who escaped into Niger state through a nearby forest that is surrounded by rocky terrain
The Command reassures members of the Public with its commitment to deploy proactive crime-fighting measures to ensure the security of lives and property in FCT.
It could be recalled, that a leaked security memo revealed that members of the extremist group, Boko Haram, had built camps in some communities in the Territory.