The Niger State Police Command recorded a major breakthrough in its fight against banditry as six bandits were shot dead during a gun battle in Garkogo, Shiroro Local Government area of the State.
This is as the Nigerian Army said on Sunday that its troops attached to Operation Lafiya Dole have arrested a suspected Boko Haram informant who has been spying on troops.
Sources said that scores of the bandits in Niger State escaped with serious bullets wound, leaving behind their motorcycles as they fled for their lives.
The bandits, defying the tenets of the Ramadan fast, had launched attack on some villages around Garkogo but were ambushed by Mobile Policemen who had received information about their operation.
The Mobile Policemen were deployed at Garkogo town following unrelenting attacks on the people by the bandits.
On invading the Garkogo community, the bandits shot and killed a villager before the Policemen engaged them in a fierce gun battle at about 3:30 in the morning on Saturday.
The development comes barely three weeks after bandits killed five soldiers and one policeman at their joint security base in Allawa.
A source said that four of the bandits were killed on the spot while bodies of two others, who died from bullets wounds, were recovered from a farm in the afternoon.
According to the source, there was no any casualty on the side of the policemen.
Meanwhile, the Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima, in a statement on Sunday identified the informant as Modu Ari, saying that the spying activities of the informant and that of his accomplices were said to have been responsible for the attacks on soldiers by the terrorists in Kamuya area of Yobe State.
General Yerima said that the suspect was apprehended by troops of 27 Task Force Brigade, adding that, he confessed to have revealed troops’ movements and position to his Boko Haram collaborators.
“Investigation is, however, ongoing to unravel the network of local informants whose nefarious activities have endangered troops on clearance operations around the fringes of Timbuktu Triangle”, the statement added.