Tropics Nigeria learnt that in the early hours of Thursday armed men invaded Tungan Maje, a suburb of Abuja, and abducted an unspecified number of residents.
A resident in the area revealed that at least 20 people were kidnapped after the gunmen were shooting sporadically in the community near Zuba. However the exact figure could not be confirmed immediately.
A police spokesman for the federal capital, Anjugur Manzah, said he was working on a statement about the incident.
He did not confirm the number of abducted persons, nor whether there were any victims.
A resident of the area, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said the violent shots began in the community at around 12:15 pm and lasted for more than an hour.
He said that the members of the local vigilante group were overwhelmed.
“We did not sleep through the night. It was this morning when the vigilantes told us that about 20 people had been kidnapped,” he said.
The attack will take place in the coming weeks, following reports that members of the extremist group Boko Haram have allegedly invaded the federal capital.
The police confirmed the attack and said that 10 people were kidnapped and five were rescued.