• Kill 1 in coordinated simultaneous night attack on 4 villages
Bandits at the weekend abducted over 150 persons, mostly women and children, in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
The incident is coming barely a week after 17 persons were abducted in Ruwan Dorawa village of the same local government.
The bandits, who reportedly attacked four villages of Mutunji, Kwanar-Dutse, Sabon-Garin Mahuta and Unguwar Kawo also killed one person during the latest operation that lasted for several hours.
A resident of Mutunji, one of the villages attacked, said that the bandits who stormed the affected villages around 9:00p.m on Friday, carried out operations in the four villages simultaneously.
He said: “Immediately they entered Mutunji village, they started firing gunshots sporadically into the air to scare the residents. As expected, people started running for dear lives.
“The bandits then apprehended the weak among the residents who were mostly women and children. Of course, the able-bodied ones among the residents escaped. While they were operating, I tried to call a friend in the neighbouring village of Kwanar-Dutse to seek for help, but he told me that they were also under attack.
“Ibrahim told me that as at the time I was speaking with him, he was in the bush together with some people after escaping.”
Another resident, who also declined to reveal his name, said that the bandits might be of the same gang, but divided themselves into four with each group attacking one village at the same time.
“We learnt that after the separate operations in the four villages, the bandits regrouped and dragged the abductees into the bush. The bandits are now attacking villages and abducting their victims at will. They no longer face any resistance from security personnel.
“In fact, residents have now been abandoned. We don’t receive any help from the security personnel whenever the bandits operate.
“The issue is that even if you inform the security or the traditional rulers nothing is being done to prevent such attacks.
“Sometimes, we get to know about the coming of the bandits, but even if we inform the concerned authorities, that will not make any positive impact,” he lamented.