The Etsu of Yaba, His Royal Highness Abdullahi Adamu has called on the people of the area to fully support the vigilante group of Nigeria as well as all other volunteer security outfits to fight crimes.
The Abuja monarch made the call while speaking with Blueprint in his palace on the security situation in Yaba under his domain. Yaba is a suburb of Abaji area council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.
He said supporting security agencies was necessary at this point in time in order to free the society of criminal elements.
He said residents of Yaba community could no longer sleep with their eyes closed because of armed bandits. He maintained that so many indigenous people of Yaba areahad run away from their ancestral home for the fear of attacks by kidnappers.
He stated that he has written a memo to the Minister of FCT, Mohammed Bello informing him about the security challenges in Yaba chiefdom but to no avail as the community has since April 2022 been under severe attack by the criminals.
The monarch explained that his chiefdom is living in fear due to the kidnappers moving into villages surrounding Yaba town. He disclosed that the residents of Gurdi, Kutara, Tekpeshe, Adagba, Zago, Madani, Lafiya-Yaba, Ruga, Paikon Bassa, Bari Bari, Chakumi, Rafin-Daji, Rugan, Fulani, and Gulida have all run away to nearby villages while very few stay at Yaba.
Giving a synopsis of attacks in the area, he said Adagba village was attacked by kidnappers on 24 April, 2022, Kutara 3rd September, Tekpeshe 10th September, Zago 15 September, Gurdi road 23 September, and Gwaji Gurdi 27 September, 2022. He lamented that all these attacks happened within six months.
He appealed to the ministers of the FCT to come to their aid to mount a stop and search point at Yaba by security agencies, especially soldiers because arms and weapons pass through Yaba through the border with Niger state while Yaba route has become the short cut for criminals to link to Lagos, Minna, Brinin Kebbi, Kontagora, Kaduna and other part of the country.