TUNDE BOLAJI – MINNA
The no go areas for bandits and other undesirable elements in Nupe speaking communities in Niger state at the weekend came under heavy attacks by unknown gunmen.
According reports , the gunmen numbering well over 100 on Saturday invaded some communities in Lavun local government area of Niger state, killing eight people and injured several others.
The attack which last all through to Sunday morning, saw the gunmen rustling unspecified numbers of cattle.
Communities that were ransacked by the gunmen includes Egbako, Ndaruka, Ebbo, Ndagbegi, Tshogi, Gogata and Ndakogitu,
According to source close one of the communities
The gunmen were said to Killed one person each at Ebbo, Tsonfadagabi, Tsogi and Kanko.
While at Gbacitagi village the gunmen invaded a wedding ceremony, Kidnapped the bride and one other girl, destroyed vehicles and other properties. They were also said to have rustle a number of cattle belonging to the villagers.
All the monies realized at the wedding ceremony, including other valuables were also snatched by the rampaging gunmen.
While on their way out of the communities and heading towards Akare community in Wushishi local government area with their rustle cattle, the gunmen got stocked at Akere when they discovered that the only bridge linking the community with Akare had collapsed.
According to our sources, the gunmen are currently stranded at Akere community, at the point of crossing with the cattle as the animals refused to enter river to cross.
They eventually abandoned the cattle at the Akere river when all efforts to to force the animals cross the river were not successful, and decided to make retreat back to Sheshi community to find a possible rout out of the community.
They were however confronted by the locals but the resultant exchange of fire between the gunmen and the local vigilantes led to the killings of six people (two vigilantes and four locals).
The gunmen, according to the locals, later shared themselves into three groups with one group at Dabban community, another group at Shegba, while the third group was said to heading towards Ndaruka.
The attack however forced the people in the affected communities to flee their homes, while those who had earlier gone to the nearby market at Batati could not return for fear of being attacked by the gunmen.
The Commissioner for local government and internal security, Emmanuel Umar, when contacted, confirmed the latest attacks but said he was yet to get the details of the incident.
