Bandits kill 38, kidnap scores in Niger State

Bandits have embarked on a killing spree in Niger State after allegedly taking the lives of at least 38 people while kidnapping scores of others during the weekend.

The gunmen went on the rampage in communities in the Rafi local government area (LGA) of Niger State, killing some of the villagers and kidnapping some others within only two days.

The bandits were said to have raided Katako village in the Rafi local government area of Niger State on Friday where they killed 25 people.

They thereafter proceeded to Kusherki town in the same local government area where they took the lives of 13 more people on Saturday.

Also on the same day, the gunmen found their way into the popular Mariga Market in the Mariga local government area of Niger where they attacked and injured scores of traders.

They did not stop there as they went ahead to rustle the traders’ cattle and made away with the sales of the market men and women.

The exact number of people kidnapped was not immediately known but one of the traders who escaped with injuries said: “They were many.”

The witness, according to Arise TV said the bandits stormed the market with three of them riding on motorcycles with each person clutching an AK-47 rifle.

“They shot sporadically into the air to scare the traders with the bullets hitting and injuring some of the traders,” the eyewitness said on condition of anonymity.

Niger State Police spokesperson, DSP Wasiu Abiodun, said that the police in collaboration with the military have been dispatched to Yakila, Tegina, Kagara, Pandogari, Kusherki and other villages in the Rafi LGA to restore normalcy in the affected areas.

Abiodun in his official statement did not, however, confirm the number of casualties or people kidnapped during the rampage.

Meanwhile, the Senator representing Niger East Senatorial District in the State, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Musa, has cried out that armed gunmen have taken over communities in his constituency.

Musa in a statement over the weekend said that not less than 20 villagers had been killed by bandits in the last couple of weeks while about 70 others were kidnapped.