Bandits kill 3 villagers, Kidnap married woman in Katsina
At least three locals of Bakiyawa village in Katsina State's Batagarawa Local Government Area have reportedly been murdered by gunmen suspected to be bandits.
According to Vanguard, another villager was wounded in the leg, and a married woman named Hawawu Yusuf of Ungwan Makera was kidnapped by the assailants.
According to Marwan Zayyana, a member of the village who confirmed the incident to Vanguard, the attackers who attacked the village around 4:00pm on Monday on motorbikes operated till about 4:30pm in the community.
Marwan identified the three villagers as Aminu Abdulwahab, Musa Abubakar, and Sadiq Lawal.
While Sadiq Lawal was murdered within his compound in Ungwan Tsugune, Abubakar Musa was killed in front of his home in Ungwan Jageme. According to Marwan, the third victim was killed on his farm while attempting to flee the marauding bandits.
"Recently, we have witnessed a spate of bandit attacks in our neighborhood. Bandits invaded our village and kidnapped six people exactly one week ago at 2.30 p.m. None of the victims have been released, thus they remain in the forest.
"On Sunday, one of the community's youths was also kidnapped and has yet to be released." The hoodlums assaulted the community again yesterday, between 4 and 4:30 p.m., and slaughtered three of our folks.
"Aside from the three people killed, the assailants were denied access to the community due to some sort of resistance from the community's youngsters," Marwan explained.
Marwan also saw that as a result of community efforts in collaboration with vigilantes, the assailants no longer come to attack late at night. "They now prefer to attack in the afternoon knowing that many people would have gone to the farm, market to seek their daily bread," he claimed.
"Aside from the three people killed, the assailants were denied access to the community due to some sort of resistance from the community's youngsters," Marwan explained.
Marwan also saw that as a result of community efforts in collaboration with vigilantes, the assailants no longer come to attack late at night. "They now prefer to attack in the afternoon knowing that many people would have gone to the farm, market to seek their daily bread," he claimed.
"Yes, we did," Marwan said when asked if they had reported the attack to the police. "But we are tired of complaining to the police because we have been battling this issue for a long time now." When we call to let them know, they frequently come on the days we are lucky and don't show up on the days we are not so lucky.
When reached, SP Gambo Isah, the Katsina Police Command's spokesperson, stated that he had not yet received any reports regarding the attack but promised to get back to our correspondent as soon as he did.
