The Federal Capital Territory Police Command has rescued two abandoned babies in separate incidents recorded in Kurudu and Gwagwalada areas of Abuja.

The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh, disclosed this in a statement on Friday, noting that both incidents occurred on Wednesday, September 2, 2026.

Adeh said the first incident occurred at about 5:30pm around Obodo Street, Kurudu, when a resident, identified as Innocent, heard the cry of a baby and discovered a baby boy wrapped in a cloth and abandoned inside a carton.

“On Wednesday, September 2, 2026, at about 5:45 PM, a resident of Kurudu, identified as Innocent, reported at the Kurudu Police Station that at about 5:30 PM on the same date, while around Obodo Street, Kurudu, he heard the cry of a baby. Upon inspection, he discovered a baby carefully wrapped in a cloth and abandoned in a carton box.

“Upon receipt of the report, Police officers from Kurudu Division alongside officers from the Juveniles and Women Care Department of the Division were promptly dispatched to the scene, where a baby boy was found and rescued. The baby was promptly taken to a nearby hospital for medical assessment and is currently in a stable condition, while efforts are being intensified to unravel the circumstances surrounding the abandonment, ” the statement partly read.

In a similar incident, Adeh said a baby girl was rescued later the same day in Gwagwalada after a resident, identified as Ibrahim, heard her crying outside his gate at about 9:40pm.

She said Ibrahim, assisted by other concerned members of the community, rescued the child and reported the matter at the Gwagwalada Police Station at about 10:15pm.

“The baby girl was promptly taken to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital by the JWC Department of the Division for medical examination and is currently receiving care before handover to the Social Welfare Development for further care,” the statement said.

The police spokesperson said efforts were also ongoing to identify the circumstances surrounding the abandonment and locate the child’s mother or other family members.

Adeh commended Innocent, Ibrahim and other members of the communities for their prompt intervention and for alerting the police.

She urged anyone with information that could assist in identifying the mothers or relatives of the abandoned babies to report to the nearest police station or contact the Command’s Public Relations Officer.

Source: punchng.com

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The Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), has defended the government’s efforts to combat insecurity, saying the vast size of areas occupied by terrorists makes rescue operations challenging.

Musa, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, said security forces were rescuing abducted victims regularly but often had to contend with terrorists disappearing into vast forests before troops could locate them.

He said the Sambisa Forest was as large as Belgium, arguing that the scale of the terrain made security operations more difficult.

“Few ones now, efforts have been made. If you notice, on a daily basis now, we are really getting, rescuing a lot of them. Yeah, because, like I said, we have 923 square kilometres. So this government is overwhelmed. Sambisa Forest is as big as Belgium, as a country. So when people talk about this, they make it look as if it is one small football field and we are refusing to do anything,” he said.

Musa explained that terrorists often moved into forests before security agencies received information about an abduction.

“These places are massive areas. The forest within Kwara comes in from Burkina Faso to Benin Republic into Nigeria and flows through all these things. So what they do is that once these abductions are done, before the information gets to anybody, these guys are already into the forest.

“So it takes a long time for us to follow them, to be able to trace over there. And then the last one that was done in Kwara State, we had to quarantine where they were going, deny them oxygen, and that’s where we were able to get them.”

PUNCH Online had reported that security forces had rescued abducted victims in several operations without arresting or killing the terrorists holding them, including an operation in Kwara State.

Explaining how such rescues were achieved, Musa said terrorists often abandoned their captives when they came under pressure from security forces.

Musa added that security forces sought to block terrorists’ access to essential supplies.

The minister also said ransom payments could provide leads for tracing terrorists, adding that the Central Bank of Nigeria was working to track funds linked to criminal activities.

Musa further urged state governors to reconsider the distribution of motorcycles as palliatives, warning that some could eventually end up with terrorists and provide them with greater mobility.

Source: punchng.com

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The Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), has explained how security forces sometimes rescue abducted victims without arresting or killing the terrorists holding them.

The clarification comes amid ongoing public concern over the persistence of kidnapping for ransom and questions about recent military operations in which troops rescued abducted victims without arresting or killing the terrorists, as seen in operations in Kwara State and other parts of the North.

Asked how troops were, in many cases, able to rescue victims without bloodshed or paying ransom, Musa said the strategy involved identifying the location of the terrorists, blocking their escape routes and cutting off their access to food, water, fuel and other supplies needed to survive.

He said terrorists often flee when confronted by security forces, leaving their captives behind.

The minister spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday.

“Sometimes if you carry out manoeuvres. The funny thing is, the terrorists too don’t want to die. I hope you know that. All this one they’re doing carrying weapons, they don’t want to die. So once there’s anything, even if it’s a drone that comes, you see them scatter away and leave everybody. That’s what happens,” he said.

Musa added, “So what we normally do is once we’re able to identify where they are, we block avenues for them. Like I said, take out the oxygen, they will die. So those are the aspects, and that’s why as long as people go to support to sneak in, give them fuel, give them water, give them food, give them all this, these are the things that are making them thrive. Once they don’t have that, they can’t survive.”

The minister also said ransom payments could be used as a means of tracing terrorists, adding that the Central Bank of Nigeria was working to track funds linked to criminal activities.

“I’m happy that the CBN too is living up to expectation, trying to make sure that even if we were able to trace monies that are coming in from those other areas, we can track back where they are,” he said.

Musa urged state governors to reconsider the distribution of motorcycles as palliatives, saying some of the motorcycles later end up in the hands of terrorists and provide them with mobility.

“We try to appeal to even governors to stop selling motorcycle—giving motorcycles out as palliatives. Because these motorcycles are the same ones that still end up to with this… with these terrorists into using. Even if you have to give, don’t give them the big capacity motorcycles, give them the small capacity ones that they will not be… won’t be able to use to run around, because that gives them leverage. They can easily enter and then disappear,” he said.

He further alleged that motorcycles distributed as constituency projects and palliatives could find their way back to bandits.

Source: punchng.com

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