Suspected bandits, have abducted over 500 persons and sacked 50 villages in Zamfara State, North-West region.
The bandits also killed five persons including two police personnel in the process on Monday, according to a Member of the House of Representatives from the state, Bello Hassan Shinkafi.
Shinkafi, who represents Zurmi/Shinkafi Federal Constituency, told journalists on Monday that several communities in his constituency had been overrun by the terrorists.
He said the bandits now strike at will, not minding the time of the day or night; to kill, maim and abduct people. This has forced survivors to scamper to safer communities elsewhere, according to the federal lawmaker.
“Not just the Garin Gora community, the entire Zurmi Local Government Area is not at peace because of frequent banditry attacks which always claim lives, besides the wounded and abducted.
“On Monday, they killed five persons, including two policemen in broad daylight at Gidan Shaho in the Nassarawa district. They also abducted over 30 persons there. As we speak, those abducted have not been completely accounted for,” Shinkafi said.
He noted that there was a need to restrategise in order to tackle the menace of bandits in the Northwest states.
According to him, “there’s inadequate manpower in this area, this is to state the fact. Worse still, there are military personnel that have spent eight, nine, even 10 years and above in the operation here in Zamfara without being relieved. Its only normal that the law of diminishing returns will catch up with them. Therefore, its important to replace them with others; this we’ve informed relevant authorities, but nothing has changed.”
He commended the Zamfara State Government for negotiating the release of 200 abductees from their captors, hoping that more would follow.
Efforts to get police confirmation of the incidents were unsuccessful, as the mobile phone of the spokesperson for the police in the state, ASP Yazid Abubakar, could not be reached.
Also repeated calls to the Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Shehu Dalije were not answered and text message to that effect was not replied to.
