An image of attackers used to illustrate the report
ABUJA, Nigeria’s capital, has witnessed disturbing cases of crime over recent months. The city is grappling with a wave of assaults, kidnappings, cult clashes, and daring robberies, threatening safety and leaving residents in fear.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police command and other security agencies have been working to combat crime, but incidents like one-chance robbery and kidnapping continue to make headlines, highlighting the challenges in maintaining security in the city.
Cultists on the rampage
On the evening of July 24, a joint task force of police, vigilantes, and hunters confronted suspected cultists in Bakassi Yimitu Village located Apo Wari in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
The ensuing exchange of gunfire was fierce, injuring a police officer and a vigilante, but ended with 19 of the cultists arrested.
FCT Police Commissioner Adewale Ajao
Less than 24 hours later, the suspected gang members struck back. In the early hours of July 25, they stormed the usually quiet Apo-Waru axis police outstation in a daring rescue attempt, vandalising three patrol vehicles and six privately owned cars before being repelled.
On March 18, 2025, Lugbe’s Tudun Wada community became a battleground for three rival cult groups as six young men, including a politician’s son, were killed.
Kidnappings
Although cases of kidnapping that dominated the last part of 2024 have gone down, the police have recently foiled multiple kidnapping operations, arresting suspects and rescuing victims.
On March 6, 2025, the police successfully rescued six individuals abducted by armed hoodlums in Rubochi, Kuje Area Council, following a fast response by security operatives.
The attackers, armed and operating in the area, stormed a farm and abducted six workers, forcing them into the nearby bush.
Upon receiving the report, security operatives swiftly mobilised, blocked the possible escape routes, and successfully rescued all victims unharmed.
The rescued victims were identified as: Joseph Musa, Joseph David, Timothy Paul, Ayuba Naroka, Moses Zubairu, and Miracle Shandon.
In a similar development, security forces, comprising the Police and the military, rescued a kidnapped naval officer and two civilians abducted by gunmen in Mpape, Abuja, on Friday, March 21.
School caregiver, toddler murdered
In another incident, tragedy shook the Dawaki community on July 23 when a caregiver, Chinyere Anaene, 55, of Clear Hope Foundation Academy, disappeared with a toddler in her care.
That evening, the kidnappers demanded ₦250 million, but not long after, the police arrested David Moses, a school security guard, for the murder of Anaene and a 14-month-old toddler, Nanenter Asher Yese, at a private school in Dawaki, Abuja.
Investigations revealed that Moses and his accomplice, Sunday Irimiya, masterminded the crime. The duo killed the victims, dumped their bodies in a canal, and made a false ransom demand.
Moses was arrested after being injured and fleeing the scene, and he led investigators to the victims’ bodies.
Robbery in Mpape, Katampe
The residents of Mpape and Katampe 2 communities hardly needed reminders of Abuja’s insecurity. For months, stretching back from May through July 2024, they endured what locals describe as a “siege” — daily armed robberies, street phone snatching, and midnight home invasions.
Victims recount doors kicked in at odd hours, electronics swept away, and entire households robbed before dawn.
Earlier in the year 2025, Mpape made headlines when armed men on April 6 attacked the F.J.K Hotel, robbing a driver attached to the Zamfara State governor’s convoy.
Katampe 2, Mpape FCT under siege from armed robbers
They made off with his phone and cash. A quick intervention by the police led to the arrest of six suspects within hours.
Unending ‘one-chance’ robbery incidents
The ICIR reported that one-chance robberies remain a persistent menace in Abuja, with criminals posing as commercial drivers to lure, rob, and sometimes kill unsuspecting passengers.
The issue has refused to disappear from Abuja despite the efforts of the authorities. Many residents of the FCT have been victims of these criminal groups, who operate using dangerous weapons, including knives, cutlasses, and guns.
They operate with point-of-sale (POS) machines, which they use to empty their victims’ accounts. While some of their victims have been unlucky to escape death, others lost their valuables and sustained injuries.
For instance, The ICIR reported that the family of Freda Arnong, a young lady killed by a ‘one chance’ criminal group in Abuja, demanded justice for the deceased from the Nigerian government.
The late Freda Arnong
The deceased’s sister, Arnong Titus Ememobong, narrated the tragic death of her sister on Facebook on Monday, July 8, 2025. She called for the implementation of a driver and vehicle authentication transport system in the FCT to curb the menace in the city.
“On July 1, 2025, my sister, Freda Arnong, closed from her house fellowship near the CBN Institute, Maitama, Abuja. She lived on Pope John Paul Street and, like any normal evening, boarded a taxi around 7:00 pm along the Transcorp Hilton road — unaware that it was a ‘one chance’ vehicle,” she said.
According to Ememobong, the moment Freda boarded the vehicle, she was blindfolded and viciously beaten. “They demanded access to her phone and ordered her to open her bank app.”
She said Freda was not a technology enthusiast — she preferred handling her banking in person. She had also misplaced her ATM card two weeks earlier and had not replaced it.
“They drove her around the city for hours, brutalising her, until they finally threw her out of their vehicle around 11:00 pm near the Moshood Abiola Stadium,” she said.
Ememobong noted that Freda was rescued by a local vigilante who rushed her to the National Hospital, Abuja, but despite every effort, she passed away at 3:00 am on July 7, 2025.
Freda’s death occurred less than two years after another young lady, Greatness Olorunfemi, was killed by one chance robbers in the city.
The ICIR reported late last year that the FCT police command launched a clampdown on the group. The Police also recently busted a one chance robbery gang and arrested five members of the syndicate.
Police spokesperson Josephine Adeh said a victim was rescued, while a member of the gang was neutralised.
The ICIR also reported in February that an angry mob killed two suspected one-chance robbers along the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Expressway in Abuja after they allegedly robbed and pushed a female victim out of their moving vehicle.
In the early hours of March 27, 2025, gunfire echoed through Royal Court Estate in Jahi II.
Police officers engaged two armed robbery suspects in a shootout, recovering three stolen vehicles, laptops, gaming consoles, and other electronics. The wounded suspects were taken into custody.
Two suspects, Rabiu Jubril and Ibrahim Isa, both residents of Tipper Garage, Jahi, had attacked the estate with arms and tried to cart away vehicles before operatives of the FCT Police command came to the scene.
Police clash with Shiites
Most recently, on June 25, 2025, security forces clashed with members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria at Banex Plaza, Wuse II. Armed with catapults, petrol bombs, and firearms, the group injured three officers, one fatally. Nineteen suspects were arrested during the fracas.
Authorities point to a decline in crime
When The ICIR contacted the spokesperson to the FCT Minister, Nyesome Wike, Lere Olayinka, he referred to two reports suggesting the crime rate had reduced in the FCT.
The first report by TC News dated July 23, 2025, indicated that the FCT Police command arrested 78 suspects in Abuja during a large-scale operation targeting notorious crime spots. The raids focused on areas known for robberies, drug activities, and cult violence. Recovered items included suspected Indian hemp and other incriminating materials.
Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike
In another report by Abuja Digest dated January 1, 2025, the police in the FCT reported a 15.1 per cent drop-in crime rate in 2024, attributing the decrease to strategies like community policing, targeted operations, and intelligence-led policing. During this period, 1,077 suspects were arrested out of 1,426 reported cases.
The command recorded notable achievements, including the rescue of 68 kidnap victims and the recovery of ₦409,992,000 from armed robbers.