Panic As Bandits Kill 3 Villagers, Abduct Married Woman In Katsina

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As many as three residents of Bakiyawa village in Batagarawa Local Government Area of Katsina State have been reportedly shot dead by gunmen suspected to be bandits.

Vanguard also learnt that one other villager was shot on the leg while a married woman identified as Hawawu Yusuf of Ungwan Makera was abducted by the assailants.

A resident of the community, Marwan Zayyana, who confirmed the incident to Vanguard said the attackers who stormed the village around 4:00pm on Monday, riding on motorcycles operated until about 4:30pm in the community.

Marwan gave the names of the three villagers killed as Aminu Abdulwahab, Musa Abubakar and Sadiq Lawal.

While Sadiq Lawal was killed inside his compound in Ungwan Tsugune, Abubakar Musa was killed right in front of his house at Ungwan Jageme. The third victim was killed on his farm while trying to flee from the marauding bandits, Marwan said

“Lately we have been witnessing series of bandits attack in our area. Exactly one week ago around 2.30 pm, bandits attacked our community and kidnapped six persons. The victims are still in the forest as none of them has been released.

“On Sunday too, one of the youths in the community was also kidnapped and he’s yet to be released. Yesterday, Monday between 4-4:30 pm, the hoodlums stormed the community again and killed three of our people.

“Aside the three villagers killed, the assailants were not given room to rob the community due to some level of resistance from youths in the community,” Marwan noted.

Marwan also observed that due to community efforts in conjunction with the vigilantes, the assailants no longer come to attack late night anymore. He said, “they now prefer to attack in the afternoon knowing that a lot of people would have gone to the farm, market to seek for their daily bread.”

On wether they contacted the police of the attack, Marwan said: “Yes, We did but we are tired of complaining to the police because we have been battling this issue for a long time now. A lot of time when we call to alert them, the days we are lucky, they come and days we are not, they don’t show up.”

When contacted, the spokesperson of the Katsina Police Command, SP Gambo Isah said he was yet to receive any report on the attack, promising to revert to our correspondent as soon as he gets the information.