Following a catastrophic attack on Saturday night, bandits raided the Danhonu village in Millennium City, Chikun Local Government Area, Kaduna State, taking two journalists and their family members hostage.
(Photo used for illustrative purpose).
As per the report published by Daily Trust on Sunday, the abduction victims comprise of AbdulRaheem Aodu, a reporter for Blueprint Newspaper, and Alhaji AbdulGafar Alabelewe, a reporter for The Nation newspaper and the chairman of the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna State Council.
Along with the journalists, their spouses and kids were also abducted.
Taofeek Olayemi, a neighboring family member of Mr. Aodu, described the incident, saying that the bandits arrived on Saturday night at 10:30 pm and opened fire randomly before breaking into the journalists' houses.
He said they started by going for Mr. Aodu's house, smashing the door and taking both him and his wife, leaving their ill daughter behind. Olayemi claims that after breaking through the fence to enter Alhaji Alabelewe's home, the bandits proceeded to his bedroom, where they abducted him, his spouse, and their two kids.
He claimed that soon after the robbers left, the vigilantes showed up and began firing intermittently into the air.
Olayemi said, "They came around 10:30pm on Saturday and started shooting sporadically. They first burst Aodu's door open and picked him and his wife and left his sick daughter behind.
"Then, they entered AbdulGafar's house through the fence and jumped into his house. They went straight into his bedroom and picked him, his wife and two of his kids. They left immediately, after which the vigilantes arrived and started shooting into the air."