Bandits raid local market in Niger, kill 21
…attack Maraba-rido, Kaduna again
BY SAKA BOLAJI (MINNA) & IDIBIA GABRIEL
At least 21 residents have lost their lives following a raid at a local market in Madaka community, Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State.
The residents said the attackers invaded the market around 3pm on Thursday when the market was at its peak, shooting sporadically at unarmed people.
Details of the attack were still sketchy at the time of filing this report but one of the residents who spoke in confidence said the number of casualties could indeed be more as the accurate figures were yet to be ascertained. The people said the attack came two days after bandits also attacked Pangu Gari, killing the district head and four other people. The Niger State Commissioner for Homeland Security, Brig Gen. Bello Abdullahi Mohammed (rtd), confirmed the attack.
Though he did not give details of the attack, he said state government was working in collaboration with security agencies to put an end to the incessant attacks on farming communities in the state. The assailants, armed and unrelenting, are said to have descended upon the village with merciless gunfire, indiscriminately snuffing out lives and reducing the community’s once-vibrant market to ashes.
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Reports from the scene suggest that it was utter chaos, with approximately 50 residences engulfed in flames, along with several commercial establishments, and a number of cars and motorcycles reduced to charred frames.
“Furthermore, they callously abducted an unknown number of villagers, spiriting them away to an undisclosed location. Alarmingly, Madaka has languished without adequate security presence since that fateful day, leaving its inhabitants vulnerable to the whims of marauding bandits, who have since operated with impunity,” a source averred.
The Niger State Government is yet to comment on the incident, prompting mounting concerns regarding measures being taken to safeguard vulnerable communities like Madaka against such brazen acts of violence.
In a related development, the Northern Senators Forum has decried the recent wave of kidnappings and other violent activities in the region, calling on the Federal government to come up with urgent and resolute action to end the menace.
Its Chairman, Senator Abdulaziz Yar’adua, in Abuja on Thursday, stressed in a statement that the group has vowed that it would not “rest until the security situation is significantly improved and the perpetrators of these heinous acts are brought to justice.”
“The series of events that have unfolded in Kaduna State, beginning with the kidnapping of 286 students and staff from a school on March 7th, the despicable attack on worshippers in a mosque on March 8th, the abduction of 61 more persons on March 12th, followed by 14 individuals on March 17th, and a staggering total of 87 individuals in Kujuru on March 18th, amongst others, are not only reprehensible but demand urgent and resolute action,” the statement read in part.
Meanwhile armed bandits have again reportedly struck Maraban rido community, in Chikun LGA of Kaduna state. The incident occurred on Friday evening at about 8pm, according to eyewitnesses.
As at the time of filling this report, no casualty report had been received from the fleeing residents of the community.
Neighbourhood eyewitness however said the bandits, in their usual number, invaded the area with sporadic gunshots, causing stampede amongst the residents who fled the areas into different directions.
The affected community is located immediate before Maraban rido from Sabon Tasha, on the way to town through the bypass, an area that has been attacked severally.
