IN the past three weeks, bandits have killed no less than four farmers and kidnapped over 100 people, including women and children, from 14 towns in Niger State’s Mashegu and Rafi local governments.
According to information obtained more than half of the victims were abducted while working on their farms harvesting maize, beans, guinea corn, and soy beans.
During an invasion in Mashegu Local Government, a traditional leader, two vigilantes, and another person were killed.
According to sources, Sabon-Rijiya, Tsohon-Rami, Bakwai-Bakwai, Mulo, Kawo-Mulo, Nasarawa-Mulo, Mai-Azara, Foje, Mutun-Daya, Beji, Gidan-Malam, Bokuta, Chetaku, and Gbazhi were among the settlements assaulted in Mashegu, prompting inhabitants to flee to Ibbi.
61 farmers are said to have been abducted in the past two weeks in the communities of Gidigori, Pandogari, and Durumi in Rafi and a portion of Shiroro.
Residents revealed that just one of the villages had been able to pay the N3 million charge that bandits had demanded be paid in order for them to stop kidnapping them and enable them to collect their farm produce. According to reports, the bandits frequently steal food that has already been harvested.
According to residents who spoke with newsmen, rural settlements in Mashegu, Mariga, Kontagora, Rafi, and Shiroro, are still not as safe as has been extensively reported in some media outlets.
Mohammed Sanusi, one of them, informed newsmen that one of the vigilantes, whom he simply identified as Abubakar, had been shot dead after being kidnapped alongside other villagers on Thursday during a bandit attack on Mulo and neighboring communities, during which Alhaji Usman Garba, the village chief of Mulo, had also been killed.
