Gunmen on Sunday abducted Nigeria’s former minister of foreign affairs, Bagudu Hirse.

Daily Trust Newspapers reports that the ex-minister was kidnapped on Inuwa Wada road in Kaduna, in front of the home of Mamman Daura, a cousin of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The paper quotes a witness as saying Mr. Hirse was set to visit Mr. Daura when the three masked gunmen stopped in front of his car and abducted him.

“From what I could hear, they were asking him to get into their car but he was trying to seek further explanations from them but 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,” the witness was quoted as saying.