{"id":77164,"date":"2025-10-22T13:40:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T13:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=77164"},"modified":"2025-10-22T13:40:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T13:40:01","slug":"abuja-woman-escapes-kidnappers-disguised-as-keke-riders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/10\/22\/abuja-woman-escapes-kidnappers-disguised-as-keke-riders\/","title":{"rendered":"Abuja Woman Escapes Kidnappers Disguised as Keke Riders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Sarah Sam Adda<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A 32-year-old civil servant, Mrs. Deborah Obianuju, has recounted how she narrowly escaped being kidnapped by tricycle (keke), riders posing as commercial operators in the Gwarinpa area of Abuja.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with The Punch, Mrs. Obianuju said the incident occurred around 9:30 p.m. while she was returning home from work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were no taxis or Bolt rides available, so I entered a keke with one passenger already seated,\u201d she recalled. \u201cThey looked normal until the driver suddenly diverted from the main road into a dark street.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said one of the men suddenly pulled out a knife and grabbed her bag.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey told me to keep quiet if I wanted to live. That was when I realized they wanted to kidnap me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Sensing danger, she took a risky chance to save herself. \u201cWhen the keke slowed down because of potholes, I jumped out while it was still moving.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The knife cut my arm and my legs were bruised, but I managed to run toward a nearby house screaming for help,\u201d she narrated.<\/p>\n<p>Residents rushed out, but the assailants sped off before help could reach her.<\/p>\n<p>She later reported the incident to the Gwarinpa Police Division, where officers confirmed that similar cases involving fake keke riders had been reported in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thank God I\u2019m alive,\u201d she said. \u201cThings are so hard in this country that people now turn to crime. It\u2019s sad that ordinary Nigerians can\u2019t move freely without fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her ordeal adds to growing concerns over insecurity in the Federal Capital Territory, where kidnapping, robbery, and other violent crimes continue to rise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to survive,\u201d Mrs. Obianuju lamented. \u201cThe government must do more to protect us because safety now feels like a luxury.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sarah Sam Adda &nbsp; A 32-year-old civil servant, Mrs. Deborah Obianuju, has recounted how she narrowly escaped being kidnapped by tricycle (keke), riders posing as commercial operators in the Gwarinpa area of Abuja. Speaking with The Punch, Mrs. Obianuju said the incident occurred around 9:30 p.m. while she was returning home from work. \u201cThere [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":77165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77166,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77164\/revisions\/77166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}