Daredevil bandits have killed two people, including a local vigilante head, and injured several others at Gidan Barau community in Malumfashi Local Government Area of Katsina State.

This is even as members of the community blocked the Sokoto/Zamfara/Katsina road for four hours over what they described as police injustice for the arrest of some of their members “simply because they were defending their area from bandits”.

The Incident which occurred Wednesday morning at about 8am, happened when bandits in their numbers, armed with automatic weapons, stormed the community with the view of carrying out nefarious activities.

But alerted that the bandits were heading their way, scores of vigilante members as well as youths from the community, quickly mobilized and came out to confront them.

According to sources, it was during the exchange of gunfire that the head of vigilante in the area, one simply identified as Alhaji Nura, lost his life; the bandits later released the remains of another victim to the community.

It was learnt that those injured were taken to hospital for treatment while the deaceased persons were buried same day according to Islamic rites.

But sources in the area said more trouble broke out while community members were still at the graveyard to bury Alhaji Nura, the vigilante head.

One of the sources who is a traditional title holder, the Sarkin Fili, Khalid Suleiman, said the bandits tried to attack them for the second time while they were still in the process of burying the deceased person.

Suleiman said the development forced them to divide themselves into two groups, with one group to continue with the burial rites, while the other group went to confront the bandits.

He said during the second confrontation, some of the bandits fled into a neighbouring house, of which the owner was said to have entered into a peace agreement with them sometimes ago.

“Some our people who pursued the bandits to the house were attacked and fighting ensued, but the house owner called the police and they came and arrested our people, and locked them up at the station.”

He said that the situation led him and rest of the community members to stage a peaceful protest, and they blocked the Malumfashi road junction, which is major road linking Sokoto and Zamfara State, with Katsina State.

He said the protested lasted for four hours with zero vehiclular movement, while several senior police officers, including the Area Commander and DPO, came to the area with the view of trying to end the protest.

Suleiman said it was only after the intervention of two respected people in the area, that they decide to end the protest and unblock the major road to allow for free traffick flow.

According to him, “It was the intervention of the Sardaunan Matasa, Alhaji Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, and Baba Sanusi, that we decided to end the protest and allow traffic to flow again.

“Alhaji Abdulaziz personally went to the police station, wrote an undertaking on behalf of our people that were arrested, before they were later released.”

When contacted, Alhaji Abdulaziz also confirmed the incident as well as the undertaking for the release of the arrested members of the community.

As at time of report, spokesperson for the police command in the state, DSP Abubaka.

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