ZAMFARA: Police kill 30 bandits, fight off attacks in villages

AT least 30 bandits met their Waterloo yesterday when men of the State Police Command engaged them in a fierce gun battle which lasted for hours.

The criminals had earlier raided four villages in the state, killing at least 10 villagers as they went on the rampage destroying lives and livelihoods.

The state police spokesman, Mohammed Shehu, in a statement last night, said though the bandits had wreaked havoc in some villages before the police officers got there, they were able to fight them off.

He added that the bandits carried out the raids on Gobirawa, Gora, Rini and Madoti Dankule villages in Zamfara State in the early hours of yesterday.

“As a result of the encounter, about 30 hoodlums were neutralised while others escaped to the forest,” the statement partly said.

Zamfara State in the northwest region of the country has been hit by a surge in kidnappings and attacks despite the ongoing peace talks between the state governor, Bello Matawalle, and the bandits terrorising the state.