Bandits have abducted scores of worshippers in one of the mosques in Tsafe town, the headquarters of Tsafe local government area of Zamfara State.
In a telephone interview with LEADERSHIP, an indigene of the area, simply identified as Malam Garba, said that the bandits, who were in large number, invaded the mosque around 5am on Thursday when the people were about to start the morning prayer.
Garba said, ”We were about to start the morning prayer today Thursday when suddenly the bandits entered into the mosque and directed everybody to go out and follow them.”
“Everybody scampered for safety but the bandits blocked everywhere and warned us that they would kill anybody who try to run away.
“I was able to jump out of the window and ran quickly into one of the uncompleted buildings near the mosque where I hid myself,” Garba added.
According to him, the bandits left their motorcycles far away from the mosque so that the worshippers would not notice their movement.
“They came on foot, leaving their motorcycles outside the town so that they would not attract the attention of the people of the area,” he stressed.
According to Garba, the number of abducted worshippers could be more than 30.
He added that, “The mosque was full to capacity when the bandits stormed the place and very few of us were able to escape.”
Also, one of the community leaders, who spoke to our correspondent on telephone on condition of anonymity, said the Community Protection Guards (CPG) have pursued the bandits in order to rescue the kidnapped worshippers.
All efforts to get comments from the spokesperson of the State Police Command, ASP Yazid Abubakar, proved abortive, as he could not be reached on telwphone after several attempts.
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