Bandits have killed seven members of a neighborhood vigilante group and kidnapped 38 residents throughout a midnight assault on Kaura Namoda city in Zamfara State, with the assailants reportedly working for greater than three hours earlier than withdrawing.
The attackers reportedly entered the city by way of a riverine route within the early hours of Saturday, hanging Kofar Zurmi and Old Market areas.
Chairman of Kaura Namoda Local Government Area, Hon. Munnir Haidara, confirmed the killing of seven members of the Joint Task Force (JTF), a neighborhood safety outfit established to assist shield communities towards assaults.
Haidara mentioned the council recruited residents into the safety outfit and supplied them with weapons to defend their communities. He added that some members of the group who sustained accidents throughout the assault had been receiving remedy in hospitals.
He mentioned the council was nonetheless compiling info to determine the variety of residents kidnapped by the attackers.
“We don’t have the actual number of people abducted during yesterday’s attack. We are still gathering data, but we hope to get the exact figure between now and this evening,” he mentioned.
A resident, Bello Lauwali, mentioned the bandits exploited another route close to the river to bypass native fortifications manned by vigilantes across the city.
According to Lauwali, vigilantes normally maintained positions on the outskirts of the city, the place they constructed native clay fortifications to discourage assaults. He mentioned some remained on responsibility till about 3am, sometimes firing warning photographs to discourage armed teams from advancing into the group.
He mentioned the attackers blocked entry routes whereas partaking members of the civilian JTF in a chronic gun battle, making it tough for different safety personnel to advance for concern of being ambushed.
Another resident, Zayyanu Usman, alleged that the motion of safety personnel and vigilantes to Kaduna State for the launch of President Bola Tinubu’s second-term marketing campaign contributed to the group’s vulnerability.
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However, Haidara dismissed the allegation, insisting that those that travelled to Kaduna had been political supporters and stakeholders, not safety operatives.
He mentioned he personally supervised the departure of those that travelled in 10 autos supplied for the journey.
“I am the chairman of the local government and I was the one who assigned the people transported in the 10 vehicles given to us to attend the campaign launch of President Tinubu. Everybody taken to Kaduna was a frontline political supporter. We did not take any security personnel,” he mentioned.
The council chairman questioned why the native authorities would withdraw personnel liable for defending residents to attend a political occasion.
“We cannot take security personnel to a campaign launch when those people are responsible for protecting residents. If we take all of them away, do you expect us to leave the people without security?” he requested.
Meanwhile, a hunter who recognized himself solely as Dutse mentioned the bandits additionally suffered casualties throughout the assault, alleging that about 15 of them had been killed. He claimed the attackers had been in a position to retrieve the our bodies of their useless fighters.
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