Gunmen have kidnapped the Chairman of the Akwanga Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Safiyanu Isa Andaha.
According to police, the victim was taken away on Monday night in Ningo village along the Andaha – Akwanga Road, along with a local.
According to Ramhan Nansel, the Police Public Relations Officer, security personnel from the police and other agencies have quickly launched the hunt for the abductors in order to ensure the victims’ release.
Despite the presence of security personnel, gunmen have been operating throughout the country’s north-central and north-western regions.
Monday’s incident comes a few weeks after gunmen ambushed a convoy in Rivers, killing four soldiers, and two civilian drivers and abducting two Korean workers, according to the police.
Nasarawa, just like Zamfara, is one of several states in northwestern and central Nigeria terrorised by bandits who raid villages, kill and abduct residents as well as burn homes after looting them.
The gangs maintain camps in a huge forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states.
The country is facing a myriad of security challenges, including a 14-year jihadist insurgency in the northeast that has killed at least 40,000 people and forced more than two million others to flee their homes.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made tackling insecurity a priority since coming to office on May 29 last year, as he seeks to encourage foreign investment in Africa’s most populous country.