By our reporter| Not less than seven persons including five military officers and one Civil Defence Officer were killed in a bandit attack on five communities in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.
The gunmen reportedly abducted over 10 persons, stole seven motorcycles, and burnt down military vehicles in attacks which happened on Wednesday and in the early hours of Thursday.
The communities attacked by the bandits are Allawa, Manta, Gurmana, Bassa, and Kokki in Shiroro council.
According to residents, the bandits stormed the camp of the Joint Security Task Force comprising of the Army, Police, Civil Defence, and Vigilantes at Allawa and opened fire on them.
They also attacked Manta, Gurmana, and Bassa villages on Wednesday, where they killed one Alhaji Sale in Madalla community and kidnapped four people.
While confirming the incidents, President, Shiroro Youth Movement, Mohammed Sani Idris, said the bandits numbering about 100, were armed with AK47.
He said they attacked the communities for about five hours unchallenged.
Idris said, “During the invasion, they killed one Alhaji Sale in Madalla community under Bassa ward and kidnapped four people and went away with two motorcycles”
“Also in Kokki Boddo a community under Gurmana ward, they abducted six persons and took away five motorcycles, five people were also kidnapped in Manta ward,” he said.
Idris appealed to both the federal and state governments to double up their effort in rescuing the lives of people at the various communities.
The Co-convener, Concerned Shiroro Youths, Abubakar Yusuf Kokki also confirmed that five soldiers and one Civil Defence Officer were killed in Allawa by bandits, who attacked their camp early on Thursday morning.
He said, “the criminals took the personnel of the Joint Security Task Force unaware and opened fire on them. In the process, 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.”
Kokki who lamented the rate of attacks by bandits in the area, explained that Allawa before the attack was one of the few towns standing in Lakpma axis of Shiroro local government that have not been invaded in the recent past.
“We, the affected victims view this phenomenon from the angle of ethnic cleansing as we have been abandoned to our fate. As a result of sheer negligence from the authorities constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of providing adequate security to the citizenry, there is deliberate efforts by criminals through crude means to depopulate us which from all indications.”
The Niger state police command has not yet confirmed that attack as at the time of filing this report.
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