Bandits Kill 2 Policemen, 2 Others, Abduct 40 In Zamfara

Bandits have killed two policemen, and two other residents and abducted about 40 persons in an attack on Kasuwa-Daji Town under the Kaura-Namoda local government area in Zamfara State.

Residents said the bandits invaded the town early hours of yesterday and started shooting indiscriminately to scare them.

According to Channels TV news, a resident of Kaura-Namoda town Abubakar Kaura told Channels Television that the bandits entered the town with sophisticated weapons including anti-aircraft gun.

He said the bandits attacked the home of the former state chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Hamisu Kasuwar-Daji and abducted one of his wives and grandchildren.

According to him, the house of the former NURTW chief is close to a police station in the town, the bandits attacked the station, disarmed the policemen on duty, and killed two.

Another resident of Kasuwa-Daji who pleaded anonymity for security reasons said the bandits also killed two residents of the town during the attack.

He confirmed that about forty persons were abducted during their house-to-house raid.

“Two residents were also killed, not only policemen. As of now, about forty persons have been whisked away by the bandits,” he said.

Although the spokesperson of the Zamfara State Police Command, Yazid Abubakar confirmed the attack to Channels Television on the phone, he did not indicate the number of persons abducted.

“Yes, there was an attack in Kasuwar-Daji early hours of today,” he said. “We are yet to confirm the number of the residents abducted but the Commissioner of Police has deployed additional troops to restore normalcy in the town.”

Zamfara State is one of several in the region plagued by criminals known as bandits who raid and loot villages, kill residents and burn houses to the ground.

The gangs maintain camps in a huge forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, and Niger states, and have carried out mass kidnappings of students from schools in recent years.