Bandits impose curfew on Niger communities
Tue Feb 25, 2020 11:44:am National
2.5K By Afam Jude Offor
Banditry in Niger State has taken a different dimension as assailants have warned the people in some communities in Rafi Local Government Area to stop moving around between the hours of 4:00pm and 7:00am, the period which the hoodlums operate.
As a result of this development, members of the communities, usually stayed in doors during this period, thereby leaving the bandits to always have field day in carrying out their nefarious activities, mostly cattle rustling. The bandits according to a source close to one of the communities, dropped the warning after they (bandits) killed three people, among them a woman and her daughter in one of their operations on Saturday evening. The bandits were also said to have abducted no fewer than 10 villagers and took them into hiding. The first incident occurred on Friday at Angwar Bulus and Tungan Makeri where the woman and her daughter were killed, while others sustained gunshot injuries. The second incident where the 10 villagers were abducted, occurred on Saturday at Maikujeri Village, few hours after Governor Abubakar Sani Bello left Kagara town, the headquarters of the local government where he had gone to visit the displaced people at the IDP camps. It was gathered that the bandits demanded for petrol as ransom for the release of some villagers kidnapped at Tungan Makeri and Angwar Bulus. I am aware that N80,000 worth of petrol in jerry cans were taken to the bandits in the bush so that those kidnapped can be released. They have their contacts in the villages and it is these contacts that the relations of the victims took the petrol to before they were taken into the forest” our source said on phone. He added: “ A lot of things are happening here and nobody is doing anything about it. It is a helpless situation here”. The witness however debunked claims that those kidnapped were from the Baptist Church in Pandogari adding: “those kidnapped both are Christians and Muslims from the town’’.
As a result of this development, members of the communities, usually stayed in doors during this period, thereby leaving the bandits to always have field day in carrying out their nefarious activities, mostly cattle rustling. The bandits according to a source close to one of the communities, dropped the warning after they (bandits) killed three people, among them a woman and her daughter in one of their operations on Saturday evening. The bandits were also said to have abducted no fewer than 10 villagers and took them into hiding. The first incident occurred on Friday at Angwar Bulus and Tungan Makeri where the woman and her daughter were killed, while others sustained gunshot injuries. The second incident where the 10 villagers were abducted, occurred on Saturday at Maikujeri Village, few hours after Governor Abubakar Sani Bello left Kagara town, the headquarters of the local government where he had gone to visit the displaced people at the IDP camps. It was gathered that the bandits demanded for petrol as ransom for the release of some villagers kidnapped at Tungan Makeri and Angwar Bulus. I am aware that N80,000 worth of petrol in jerry cans were taken to the bandits in the bush so that those kidnapped can be released. They have their contacts in the villages and it is these contacts that the relations of the victims took the petrol to before they were taken into the forest” our source said on phone. He added: “ A lot of things are happening here and nobody is doing anything about it. It is a helpless situation here”. The witness however debunked claims that those kidnapped were from the Baptist Church in Pandogari adding: “those kidnapped both are Christians and Muslims from the town’’.
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