By Correspondent in Minna
Less than a month after bandits killed five soldiers and one NSCDC officer in Niger state,these criminal minded elements have again struck some commumities in Shiroro Local Government Area of the state on Friday night, killing one person and abducted 10 others.
The bandits, according to findings by our Correspondent, shot sporadically into the air in the dead hours of the night to announce their arrival before moving from one community to another burning houses and barns where the villagers stored yams and grains.
Reliable sources told our correspondent that the bandits operated for hours unchallenged at Karibo, Shekadna, Kokki, Sarkin Zama, Bakin Kogi (Lagbe), Maganda and other adjoining villages in Gurmana district, destroying property.
The District Head of Sarkin Zama and several others, in their bid to escape into safety, were said to have sustained various degrees of injury but are responding to treatment in nearby health facilites in Kuta, the headquarters of Shiroro Local Government Area.
The bandits who were said to have entered the affected communities in their large numbers on motorcycles with sophisticated weapons, also shot sporadically into the air before entering homes of their victis and setting them on fire.
Residents of the area who spoke of security situation in the area lamented that the bandits had devised new mode of operation as they now barricade roads linking communities to prevent vehicular movements or laying ambush before unleashing terror on their targets.
One of the victims told our correspondent,on phone, that the bandits attacked a family member who had gone to his house from the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp to fetch foodstuff for upkeep of others, adding that in the process, the bandits set the barn and houses ablaze.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), for the Police Command in the state, DSP Wasiu Abiodun, could not confirm the attacks as his numbers were indicating, ‘unreacheable’ when our Correspondent called the numbers.
However, the Co-convener of the Shiroro Youths Association, Comrade Yusuf Abubakar Kokki, who confirmed the attacks,appealed to the Federal and state government to come to the aid of the victims to forestall further attacks.
