Bandits abduct 3-month-old baby, kill 2 in Zamfara

BY: Oliseama Okwuchukwu

Security forces are now trailing yet to be identified gunmen who invaded Kanoma village in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State, and abducted seven persons, including a three-month-old baby, along with her mother, killing two people.

An eye witness, Malam Ibrahim Muhammed told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gusau on Wednesday that the bandits in their hundreds besieged the area at about 3 a.m. on Tuesday and fired gun shots sporadically in the air to scare the residents away.

Muhammad further explained that “It was while they were scaring the people with gun shots that they killed the two victims who came out in the confusion.”

“We tried to raise alarm to security agencies who were stationed in different places along Sokoto/Gusau road, but everyone was afraid of being sighted by the assailants who held powerful fire arms,” he said.

He said the bandits went to the residence of one Dan Haja, a business man, beat him with iron rods and inflicted serious injuries on him after which they went away with his wife who is a nursing mother and her three months old baby.

He also said the bandits moved to the house of a retired Director-General in the state government, Alhaji Sani Abdullahi, and picked him too along with six other persons and disappeared.

“At a later time, they called to demand for a ransom of 50 million naira for the release of those abductees,” Muhammad said.

When contacted, the state Police Command spokesman, SP Mohammed Shehu confirmed the attack but said, “from the report we received, no one was killed and a total of eight persons mostly women and children were abducted by the attackers.”

He said, the command’s Tactical and Anti-terrorism units had been deployed to the area to trail the bandits and arrest them, adding that peace had been restored to the area.

He urged members of the public to always report such attacks or suspicious movements in good time so that assistance could come. (NAN)