Details of how former minister of foreign affairs, Ambassador Bagudu Hirse was kidnapped by unknown gunmen in Kaduna State, yesterday, have emerged.

Sources said the former minister, who was the governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP) in Plateau State, in the 2015 election, was taken away by the kidnappers after they fired gunshots to scare onlookers.

According to accounts by witnesses, the incident happened in front of Alhaji Mamman Daura’s residence on Inuwa Wada Road in Kaduna.

The spokesman of the Kaduna State Police Command, ASP Aliyu Usman, who confirmed the incident, said the command was on top of the situation.

It was gathered that Hirse who had earlier paid a condolence visit to the family of the late former Sultan of Sokoto, Ibrahim Dasuki, on Kabiru road, few meters away from Inuwa Wada road, decided to make a quick stopover at the residence of Daura, who was at home and was receiving guests, and was almost there before the kidnappers accosted and made away with him.

A yet-to-be identified friend of the former minister who was with him at the time of the incident,  was also hit by the gunmen and was rushed to a hospital for treatment.

“From what I could hear, they were asking him to get into their car and he was trying to get further explanations from them. At that time, people started approaching the scene so one of them raised the gun he was holding and made to shoot but it did not fire, he tried it the second time and it failed, but the third time, a shot rang and people ran for dear lives.

“That was when they forced him into the car but removed his babariga and cap and threw it on the floor. The other masked man then kicked his other friend on the shin and that was how they drove away,” one of the witnesses said.

A local guard in the area who spoke to  journalists on the condition of anonymity, said people came close initially but when the abductors fired  shots, they ran away and didn’t hear the rest of the conversation between them and the former minister.

The guard confirmed that Daura was at home when the gun men arrived.

“But he was inside with other dignitaries like the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari when they came,” he stated.

He further disclosed that after the gunmen drove away, Daura was informed about the incident and security was beefed up with deployment of more personnel to the house before he departed for Abuja.

No demand was said to have been made by the kidnappers as at the time of this report.