Laleye Dipo in Minna
The District Head of Madaka, Alhaji Zakari Yau, his wife, as well as the village head of Kikoki are among the eight people kidnapped by bandits in Niger State Tuesday night.
Others, according to a report, included the secretary of the district council and a retired soldier, among others
According to a report from the area, the bandits numbering over 20 stormed the district at about 10pm Tuesday and started shooting sporadically into the air before they also embarked on breaking into the houses of the villagers.
They were said to have ransacked all the houses in the community and looted all their food stuff before rustling several heads of cattle.
An eyewitness said before the arrival of security operatives, the bandits had disappeared into the bush.
THISDAY gathered that on Monday, 11 villagers were killed and no fewer than 20 others injured by bandits in Koki village in Shiroro Local Hovernment in an operation that was said to have lasted more than five hours.
The attack on Koki village was the third this year, according to an eyewitness.
THISDAY gathered that the injured were rushed to Kagara General Hospital for treatment.
In an apparent confirmation of the incidents, the state government said it has mobilised security operatives to carry out air and land surveillance with the sole aim of tracking and arresting the bandits that have again been terrorising the communities.
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, according to a statement, was said to have directed the security operatives “to fish and flush out the bandits terrorizing the communities”.
Bello assured the people that the “Niger State government is working alongside security apparatus in the state to stem the tide of pandemonium at the flash points, so as to bring succour and peace to the affected and surrounding communities”.
“The state government is aware that the bandits are crossing over from neighboring states such as Zamfara and Kaduna axis to Allawa and Erena axis and from Brini-Gwari adjacent Kamuku National Park, we will do everything to stop their migration into the state,” he said.
The police have not commented on the incidents.
