Police Foil Zamfara Highway Attack, Rescue 9, Arrest Gunrunner

The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Yazid Abubakar, disclosed this in a statement issued on Saturday night.

According to the statement, the Tsafe Divisional Police Headquarters received information at about 1:20pm on Friday about heavy gunshots around the Kwanoni–Gidan Giye axis of the highway.

Preliminary investigation showed that armed bandits had intercepted two vehicles.

One of the vehicles was a Sharon mini-bus, with registration number KWL 742 ZY, driven by Lawal Dauda of Zaria Local Government Area, Kaduna State, and conveying seven passengers from Gusau to Zaria.

The second vehicle, an unregistered bus driven by Haruna Alhaji Nasiru of Danja LGA, Katsina State, was conveying his son, Sanusi Haruna, and transporting dry cassava from Sokoto to Funtua.

“Upon hearing the gunshots, the Divisional Police Officer, Tsafe, alongside operatives of the Violence Crime Response Unit and military personnel under Operation Fansan Yamma, swiftly mobilised to the scene and engaged the bandits in a fierce gun duel,” the statement said.

The security forces’ response forced the bandits to retreat towards the mountainous outskirts of Tsafe town, with some of them believed to have sustained gunshot wounds.

The nine occupants of the two vehicles were rescued unharmed.

In a separate operation later the same day, at about 5:30pm, operatives of the VCRU, acting on intelligence, arrested a 50-year-old suspect, Khalid Umar, from Bawa Ganga Village in Tsafe LGA.

The suspect was intercepted along the Funtua–Tsafe Federal Highway while allegedly conveying 11 locally fabricated AK-47 rifles.

Abubakar said preliminary investigation indicated that Umar was transporting the firearms from Shuwaki Village in Bakori LGA, Katsina State, to Bawa Ganga in Tsafe LGA, Zamfara State.

The suspect remains in police custody, while the recovered firearms have been secured for further investigation to determine their source, intended recipients and others connected to their procurement.

The police said joint patrols and intelligence-led operations would continue along major highways and other vulnerable areas across the state.