Abdullahi Hassan, Zaria

A 30-year-old daughter of a former vice-chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof Abdullahi Mustafa, have been kidnapped.

But the community where the incident took place rallied to kill the kidnappers’ gang leader.

A source in the ex-vice chancellor’s family, while speaking on condition of anonymity told our correspondent that a gang of five gunmen had stormed the former vice-chancellor’s home located at Hayin Malam, Jama’a, in Sabon Gari Local Government Area, at about 2pm on Friday, holding sophisticated guns; they headed straight for Prof. Mustafa’s flat room.

“They forced one of the security guards to lead them to his main room; while moving towards the room, the security man ran away, but he was shot in the leg in the by the gunmen.”

According to him, the gunmen later forced themselves to the house and forced everyone including the ex-VC’s married daughter who came to see him from Lagos out.

“Soon after they came out of the house, the community resisted the kidnap attempt with an exchange of gunfire; the leader of the kidnappers was killed in the process, but the rest of the kidnappers succeeded in taking the 30-year-old-daughter of the former VC who is a mother of three children away.”

He described the situation as “both terrifying and shocking” considering the way the gunmen penetrated the community.

“In fact, we suspected that they must have had an informant who told them about the movement of people in the house.

“We appeal to the government to improve the security situation in the area.”

The Divisional Police Officer, Sabon Gari, Abdullahi Mohammed, confirmed the incident saying: “Honestly, since the kidnap incident happened, we have been investigating it and we’ll keep you informed later.”