Bandits sack Senator Umaru’s community, kill eight, hundreds flee
Posted by John Adams, Minna | 22 December 2019 | 587 times
With
barely one week after armed Bandits suspected to be kidnappers abducted two
Expatriates and six others working for former Senator David Umoru, Armed Men
suspected to be bandits have attacked Senator David Umaru’s community, Kaure,
Kwaki Ward in Shiroro local government area.
The
bandits killed eight other villagers in the attack which occurred in the early
hours of Sunday.
Over
100 members of the community, including women and children are said to have
fled the community for safety.
The
Councillor representing the ward, Malam Jafaru Kwaki told our correspondent on
phone Sunday afternoon that the suspected bandits stormed the community
on motorcycles with three persons on each at about 7 am shooting sporadically
into the air.
“I just
received the sad development of an invasion again of a community in my area by
armed men dressed in black. This is another deadly attack after two Expatriates
and six members of the community were abducted and are yet to regain their
freedom almost ten days now.
“They,
as has been their characteristics, stormed the community on motorcycles
shooting. From the information at my disposal, eight people have lost their
lives in attack which lasted hours.
” We
cannot ascertained the number of people injured in the attack yet because many
escaped into the bushes with bullet wounds but we were able to move 15 who
sustained various degrees of injuries to health centres,” he explained.
The
attack in the community is the 15th in the last ten months with an estimated 200
people so far killed while about 5,000 others mostly women and children have
been forced to abandoned their homes.
The
last attack was the abduction of two foreigners and six others in Erena,
Shiroro local government area of Niger state.
The two
expatriate construction workers are said be handling the contraction work on
the 52 kilometers roads from Erena town to Kaure village, a border town between
Niger and Kaduna state, cutting across over 200 villages.
The
counsellor disclosed that the attackers rustled cows, dispossessed locals of
cash and food stuff at gunpoint.
“They
burnt two vehicles, five machines and some houses in the attack, ” he also
disclosed.
He said
many locals are missing with search parties hurriedly put together, cobbing the
bushes for them, while others are being evacuated to safe locations.
Our
correspondent also gathered that the attack is coming even when locals
displaced in the recent attacks across eight communities in Rafi and Shiroro
local government areas are still in the internally displaced persons camps in
Kuta, Kagara and Gudu communities.
The
attacks which happened three weeks ago claimed 13 lives in Kukoki, Shiroro
local government area alone, while the district head of Madaka, Alhaji Zakari
Yau, his wife, the village head of Kukoki and four others, including the
Secretary of the district council and a retired soldier were kidnapped.
Kwaki
called on the state government and military authority to urgently come to the
aide of the district and entire Shiroro and Rafi local government areas by
deploying troops to the areas which he said, have been under siege for a long
time.
Although
the police could not be immediately reached for comment on the attack, the
Senator representing the zone, Senator Sani Musa condemned the latest attack,
described it as one attack too many.
He said
it high time Military come to the rescue of the people, stressing that “all
indications is that something urgent must be done before the people are
completely wipe out. I am highly worried about the growing insecurity in the
area”.
Meanwhile
the State Emergency Agency (NSEMA) said it has activated emergency response
mechanism to deal with the situation.
The
Director General of the Agency Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmed Inga said his office is yet
to receive report of casualty of the latest attack. (Sunday Sun)
Source: News Express
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