A night of prayers turned into a nightmare on Friday when armed men stormed a mountain-top vigil in Egbola area along Agbaja Road in Lokoja Local Government Area of Kogi State, abducting an unspecified number of worshippers.
It was reported that the attackers invaded the remote prayer ground in the dead of night, opening fire indiscriminately to terrorise the worshippers before dragging several of them into the nearby bush.
A woman, identified as Mary Adams Gure, was reportedly rescued by local vigilantes who responded swiftly after receiving information about the attack.
The rescue was said to have followed a fierce gun battle between the vigilante group and the kidnappers.
“They came shooting to scare everyone. People were running in different directions. Some were captured and taken away into the forest,” a local source familiar with the incident was quoted by Daily Trust.
In the ensuing chaos, Gure reportedly escaped and was later found by the vigilantes.
“The vigilantes were mobilised quickly and engaged the gunmen in a gunfight. In the process, Mary Gure was rescued. A search-and-rescue operation is ongoing to find the remaining victims,” one of the vigilantes said.
The full number of those abducted remains unclear as of press time.
Efforts to reach the Kogi State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP William Aya, proved abortive. He failed to respond to multiple calls and messages regarding the incident.
This latest attack adds to the growing insecurity in Kogi and other parts of the North Central region, where religious gatherings, schools, and transport routes have increasingly become soft targets for kidnappers and armed gangs.
