Laleye Dipo in Minna
After more than 30 days in kidnappers’ den, five victims-two of them women-were last week rescued by men of the Niger State Police Special Tactical team in a clearance operation.
The five victims, Susan Sunday, Patience Sunday, Bulus Yahaya, Yakubu Abuba, and Lazarus John, were abducted from Chikun village in Kaduna state early November.
They have all been reunited with their families after profiling and undergoing medical treatment.
It was learnt that during the clearance operation, several bandits were neutralised while not less than 300 cattle rustled by the bandits were recovered and returned to their owners. The neutralised bandits, according to reports, belonged to the Alhaji Leyi terror gang that has been terrorising some parts of Kaduna and Niger States.
The Niger State Commissioner for Internal Security and Humanitarian Affairs, Mr. Emmanuel Umar, who confirmed this to journalists in Minna at the weekend, said the operation was carried out last Thursday night when the Taskforce mobilised to the operational base of the notorious bandits kingpin, adding that when the Taskforce invaded the terrorist hideout at Gaskiya Bana, they (terrorists) fled in different directions and abandoned herds of cattle believed to have been rustled around the axis.
Umar said: “The Security Forces recovered large herds of cattle and proceeded towards Unguwan Aboki, another community terroriSed by the terrorist,” adding that the Taskforce ran into an ambush by the terrorists at Unguwan Aboki but were repelled and others forced to retreat and run into a nearby vegetation and forest belt.
He further said that the five kidnapped victims were rescued at Katarma village when the Taskforce chased the fleeing terrorists to the area.
While commending the efforts of the security agencies and other stakeholders for mitigating the spate of terrorists activities in parts of the state, Umar assured the people that the government is determined to keep supporting the security agencies to ensure that peace and safety is fully restored to troubled communities in the state.
Umar, however, urged the security agencies to take the fight to all the known forest enclaves where terrorists are hibernating with a view to rooting them out so that “communities can have a safe corridor to carry on their lawful businesses, including their farming activities.”
