Bandits Plant Explosives Along Zamfara Road, Kill 12

At least 12 people were reported dead on Wednesday morning following an explosion caused by bandits on a bridge in Zamfara State.

The victims were travelling in an overloaded Golf car en route to Gusau from the Maru Local Government Area when the blast occurred at about 8am at Gadar Mailamba, also known as the Mailamba Bridge, in the Tashar Sahabi region of Maru LGA.

A resident, Nuhu Babangida, said security personnel and members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) were on-site in Tashar Sahabi recovering bodies when he spoke to our reporter later that afternoon.

This incident follows a similar attack on another bridge in the area just days earlier, when an explosive planted by bandits detonated after a thwarted attack in Unguwar Galadima, also within the same local government area.

Residents reported that the bandits have been targeting communities surrounding the Dansadau Emirate in retaliation for the killing of their leader, Sani Black, in September by local vigilantes. Mr Black was known as one of the pioneers of terrorism in the region. He was associated with the late Tsoho Buhari and was a close ally of the late Halilu Sububu, who was killed in an ambush on 13 September.

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The site of the recent explosion, Tashar Sahabi, is approximately 28 kilometres from Dansadau town. Meanwhile, Yazeed Abubakar, the police spokesperson in Zamfara, stated that he was awaiting a briefing on the situation when contacted for comments.

Narrating the episode to LEADERSHIP in a Telephone interview, Mal Murtala Sani, a resident of the area, said the bump exploded and killed all the passengers in the vehicle beyond recognition.

“As I am talking to you now, all the passengers inside the Gulf wagon vehicle were burnt to death beyond recognition as their flesh was scattered.

Murtala added that the incident that occurred on Wednesday is the second to what happened two or three days ago on the same road where the dreaded terrorists planted the bump to kill one person on the spot.

“This is coming three days after the first incident where these dreaded terrorists planted a bomb along the same Dansadau road, which caused the death of a driver,” he said.

The villagers, therefore, called on Federal and state governments to quickly come to the aid of the people of the area as the terrorists changed their tactics of killing innocent people in the state, adding that Magami, Dansadau, and areas villages under Dansadau District are serious threats by bandits for over seven years.

When contacted, the spokesperson of the Zamfara State Police Command, ASP Yazeed Abubakar, confirmed the incident; when filing this report, he could not be reached as his telephone line always responded as not reachable.