By Correspondent in Minna
Several people, including five soldiers and one mopol officer were early on Thursday morning shot dead when gunmen suspected to be bandits attacked communities in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger state.
The attack on Shiroro communities is coming barely three days after gun men slaughtered Local Government chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),Suleiman Ishaya and abducted his wife.
The attackers, our correspondent learnt, stormed the camp of the Joint Security Task Force comprised of the Army, Police, Civil Defence and Vigilantes at Allawa and opened fire on them at about 2 a.m when they were to be fast sleep.
Source from the area also hinted that the security team were taken unwares as the armed men shot dead many of the security personnel, abducted over 10 persons, stole some motorcycles and set ablaze operational vehicles of the Joint Task Force.
The source also told journalists how the entire village was thrown into comfusion with many of the people in the area still in shock over the attack that has left the people from; Allawa, Manta, Gurmana, Bassa and Kokki, all in Shiroro Local without a home.
Eye witness account also hinted that many of the villagers sustained various degrees of injury as they scampered for safety as the bandits also attacked Manta, Gurmana and Bassa villages where one Alhaji Sale in Madalla community under Bassa ward also lost his life.
Comrade Mohammed Sani Idris, the President of Shiroro Youths movement/and Chairman Bassa, Gurmana and Manta, confirmed the attacks, saying that the bandits, armed with AK47 and numbering close to 100, operated for about five hours unchallenged.
“During the invasion, they killed one Alhaji Sale and kidnapped four people and do away with two motorcycles, at Kokki Boddo, a community under Gurmana ward, they abducted six persons and took away five motorcycles, five persons were also kidnapped in Manta ward”
Also, the Co-convener, Concerned Shiroro Youths, Sani Abubakar Yusuf Kokki, confirmed that five Soldiers and one Civil Defence officer were killed in Allawa by the bandits who attacked their camp early Thursday morning.
He said, “The bandits took the Joint Security Task Force unawares and opened fire on them and unfortunately, they burnt down the Camp to ashes, including the operational vehicles and also killed about six personnel; five Army Officers and one Civil Defence Officer while many others sustained various degrees of gunshot injuries”.
Efforts to get the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Niger state command, DSP Wasiu Abiodun to confirm the killings as at the time of filing this report failed as he refused to pick his calls when our Correspondent called him.
