An eye witness, simply identified as Pa. Joseph, a clergyman, confirmed the attack, attributing his narrow escape to God.
Pa Joseph said he had barely alighted from a commercial vehicle he boarded from Ibadan, when he heard a staccato of gunshots.
He immediately hurried for safety, abandoning part of his luggage in the process.
One of the men was described as a ‘blind Pastor’, whose plea for leniency and release was ignored by the kidnappers.
Two of the victims, a mother and her infant who newly moved to the neighbourhood were however left off the hook on Thursday.
“I had to abandon my luggage and hurriedly ran for cover. I lied flat on the floor to avoid being noticed. Thank God they did not see me in the dark,” Pa Joseph.
Abaji, a suburb of the FCT has become notorious for rampant incidents of kidnapping in recent times.