Seven persons including five military officers and one Civil Defence Officer were killed in a bandit attack on five communities in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.
During the bandits’ attack, 10 persons were kidnapped, seven motorcycles stolen and military vehicles burnt down.
The attack, which was carried out from Wednesday night into the early hours of Thursday morning, were in Allawa, Manta, Gurmana, Bassa and Kokki communities, all in Shiroro LGA.
Sources said that the bandits arrived as early as 2:00am on Thursday into the Allawa community and stormed the camp of the Joint Security Task Force comprising of the Army, Police, Civil Defence and the Vigilantes, opening fire on them.
Five soldiers and one Civil Defence Officer officer were killed at the camp while many villagers were injured. The injured are receiving treatment at various health centres.
Confirming the incident, Chairman, Shiroro Youth Movement, Mohammed Idris said the bandits armed with AK-47 numbering about 100 attacked each community for about five hours unchallenged.
“During the invasion, they killed one Alhaji Sale in Madalla community under Bassa ward and kidnapped four people and went away with two motorcycles”.
“Also in Kokki Boddo a community under Gurmana ward, they abducted six people and took away five motorcycles; five people were also kidnapped in Manta ward,” Idris said.
Idris then appealed to both the Federal and State government to increase their effort in securing the lives of people at the various communities.
The Co-convener, Concerned Shiroro Youths, Abubakar Yusuf Kokki also confirmed that five soldiers and one Civil Defence Officer were killed in Allawa by bandits, who attacked their camp early on Thursday morning.READ ALSO: Forum condemns attack on Ortom, frowns at renewed Bonta-Ukpute communal conflict
According to him, “the criminals took the personnel of the Joint Security Task Force unaware and opened fire on them. In the process, they burnt down the camp to ashes including the operational vehicles and also killed about six personnel (five Army Officers and one Civil Defence Officer) while many others sustained various degrees of gunshot injuries.”
He explained that Allawa before the attack was one of the few towns standing in Lakpma axis of Shiroro local government that have not been invaded in the recent past.
Lamenting the rate of attacks by bandits in the area, Kokki said, “We, the affected victims view this phenomenon from the angle of ethnic cleansing as we have been abandoned to our fate. As a result of sheer negligence from the authorities constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of providing adequate security to the citizenry, there is deliberate efforts by criminals through crude means to depopulate us which from all indications.”