Gunmen numbering at least 10 riding on five motorcycles yesterday morning abducted a German in Gombi town of Adamawa state.
Security sources and local residents said the incident occurred at about 6:45 a.m. at Anguwan Faransa area of the town.
The German, said to be the principal in charge of a Government Technical Skill Acquisition Centre in the town, was on his way to work when he was kidnapped.
A resident, Mr Joseph Ga’anda, said the man, whose name he gave as Mr Fisch, “is a very popular figure in the town.”
He said: “The abductors laid siege on his house. They were alleged to have slept near his house or came in the wee hours because we saw their abandoned blankets near the house.
“The gunmen, suspected to be members of Boko Haram, had come on motorcycles. And as soon as the man came out and was about to get into his car, two persons on foot approached him and pointed a gun at him. They now called the two other sets of people on motorcycles that approached them and they carried him away on their motorcycles.”
He added: “Almost everybody in this town knows him because he helps us a lot, especially in the area of repairing the town’s water bore holes. Most of the time he uses his own money to buy equipment and repair our boreholes.”
Another resident who doesn’t want his name be mentioned confided that the incident occurred when the police escort attached to the abducted man was away.
“The police escort was said to be bereaved, and before other security operatives they gunmen have since fled away.”
Efforts to get details from the TTS, the firm handling the training scheme in Adamawa, proved abortive as none of the senior staff was available.
In the meantime, the German Embassy in Abuja, when contacted over the telephone, said it was not yet aware of the incident.
When contacted, the spokesperson of the police in Adamawa state, DSP Othman Abubakar, said he was in a meeting and promised to call back, but he was yet to respond as at the time of filing in this report.
