In the late hours of Saturday, heavily armed men suspected to be kidnappers invaded the home of a former Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, and brutally injured three security officers.
Around 7:50 p.m., the alleged kidnappers forced their way into the former minister’s residence in Ola, Akwanga Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, firing sporadically into the air.
According to one of the injured security guards, the attackers, who spoke Hausa, hammered on the former minister’s gate for several minutes before scaling the fence of the home when they realized no one was prepared to open the gate for them.
He said, “The situation was really a terrible one. They came in their numbers and started knocking on the gate while speaking Hausa, but when we observed that they had strange faces, we refused to open the gate for them.
“Because of our refusal to open the gate, they started shooting and later jumped the fence into the compound, and we were injured while making efforts to handle the situation.”
Speaking about the incident, former Minister of Information Labaran Maku noted that it was the third time in a month that criminals had targeted his home.
He said, “You will remember that they invaded my father’s compound at Wakama and kidnapped three of my siblings about a month ago.
“The other time, they killed two of my elder brother’s children right at the residential house.
“What happened today shows clearly that our state is under siege. It took the intervention of the Army and the police deployed to Akwanga, who immediately rushed to my residence to assist us. On sighting the army, the bandits fled into the bush.”
Attempts to obtain a response from the state’s Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ramhan Nansel, were futile because he was not returning phone calls.
