Wednesday – Owerri. Members of a vigilante group have rescued a kidnap victim in a forest in the Abba community region of Nwangele Local Government Area, Imo State.
The vigilante group known as Abba Security Watch, was set up by the Abba Autonomous Community Development Union to curb the spate of kidnappings and banditry around the community and its environs.
The victim, a middle-aged man, was abducted by gunmen in the Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area of the state on Monday and was taken to a bush in the community, reports The Punch.
He was said to have been shot in the leg by his abductors, who abandoned him on sighting the vigilantes.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Orlando Ikeokwu, has since confirmed the incident.
“I can confirm the development. He has been handed over to our men at the Nwangele Police Division. He was rescued by the vigilante group in a bush in Abba. He was kidnapped in Mbaise. We have already launched a manhunt for the fleeing kidnappers,” he said, according to the report.
Eastern and much of the North-central regions of Nigeria have been faced with the scourge of Islamic Fulani militancy for years. Fulani herdsmen are wandering nomads from different parts of Africa who have been given a green light to settle in different parts of Nigeria, especially in predominantly Christian communities, with little to no resistance. Host communities have suffered varying degrees of losses ranging from the loss of human lives, properties, ancestral homelands, etc. The herdsmen are known to kidnap farmers and indigenes for ransom, rape women and harass villagers.