AT least seven people have been reportedly kidnapped in Gidan-Bijimi, a settlement in Kawu Ward of Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
ThisDay quoted sources as saying six girls and a 16-year-old boy were taken in a well-coordinated attack that occurred around 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
It was learned that the victims had travelled to the community, which borders the neighbouring Marke village in Kaduna State, for a relative’s burial ceremony when the armed men struck.
Eyewitnesses said the kidnappers, armed with AK-47 rifles, stormed two houses in the community and fled with the victims amid sporadic gunfire that prevented residents from confronting them.
The latest abduction occurred just three days after FCT Minister Nyesom Wike launched Operation Sweep, directing security agencies to intensify surveillance, curb crime, and enhance safety across the nation’s capital.
It also came a day after the FCT Police Commissioner Miller Dantawaye assured residents that the police were fully prepared to secure border communities and protect major areas within the nation’s capital.
The ICIR contacted the Police Public Relations Officer, Josephine Adeh, for confirmation, but calls and a WhatsApp message to her went unanswered.
This latest abduction adds to the list of abduction that has rocked the country in the past weeks.
The ICIR reported that Before dawn on November 17, 2025, armed men breached the fence of Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, killed the vice principal, and abducted 25 schoolgirls – a chilling echo of the Chibok, Dapchi, and other mass kidnappings of young girls in Nigeria.
A teacher was killed while trying to protect schoolchildren during the attack and a security guard later died in hospital from gunshot wounds.
An official of Danko Wasagu council, Hussaini Aliyu, said on November 19 that two girls among the 25 students managed to escape.
He explained that the girls ran away across farmland as their armed captors were leading them into the bushes.
Gunmen also stormed St. Mary’s Papiri Private Catholic Secondary School in the Papiri community of Agwara Local Government Area, Niger State, and abducted scores of students and teachers, in the early hours of Friday November 21, making it the second mass abduction within a week.
Local sources said the gunmen arrived at the school between 3 and 4 a.m. in large numbers, riding on over 60 motorcycles and accompanied by a van, and shot the school’s gatekeeper, leaving him with serious injuries.
Earlier, a Daily Trust’s report showed that seven people were reportedly kidnapped in the Bwari, Gwagwalada, and Abaji Area Councils between October 2 and 21.
Armed men suspected to be kidnappers stormed Kungabokun, a remote settlement near Byazhin-Across on the outskirts of Kubwa in the Bwari Area Council on October 2.
The assailants allegedly shot and killed a veterinary doctor, identified as Ifeanyi Ogbo, after breaking into his residence. They also reportedly abducted his three children during the attack.
On October 16, kidnappers seized a primary school teacher, Ishaya Ismaila, while he was harvesting maize on his farm in Tungan Maje, a community in the Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT.
He was later released after reportedly paying N1 million ransom.
On October 21, a Principal of Junior Secondary School (JSS) Naharati in the Abaji Area Council, Zakari Abdulkadir Yelwa, his wife, Rakiya Zakari Yelwa, and their daughter, Hafsat Dauda, were abducted by gunmen.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.