•File photo
With barely one week after armed bandits suspected to be kidnappers abducted two expatriates and six others working for former Senator David Umoru, armed men have attacked Senator David Umaru’s community, Kaure, Kwaki Ward in Shiroro local government area of Niger State.
The bandits killed eight other villagers in the attack which occurred in the early hours of Sunday.
Over 100 members of the community, including women and children are said to have fled the community for safety.
The Councillor representing the ward, Malam Jafaru Kwaki told our correspondent on phone Sunday afternoon that the suspected bandits stormed the community on motorcycles with three persons on each at about 7 am shooting sporadically into the air.
“I just received the sad development of an invasion again of a community in my area by armed men dressed in black. This is another deadly attack after two Expatriates and six members of the community were abducted and are yet to regain their freedom almost ten days now.
“They, as has been their characteristics, stormed the community on motorcycles shooting. From the information at my disposal, eight people have lost their lives in attack which lasted hours.
”We cannot ascertained the number of people injured in the attack yet because many escaped into the bushes with bullet wounds but we were able to move 15 who sustained various degrees of injuries to health centres,” he explained.
The attack in the community is the 15th in the last ten months with an estimated 200 people so far killed while about 5,000 others mostly women and children have been forced to abandoned their homes.
The last attack was the abduction of two foreigners and six others in Erena, Shiroro local government area of Niger state.
The two expatriate construction workers are said be handling the contraction work on the 52 kilometers roads from Erena town to Kaure village, a border town between Niger and Kaduna state, cutting across over 200 villages.
The counsellor disclosed that the attackers rustled cows, dispossessed locals of cash and food stuff at gunpoint.
“They burnt two vehicles, five machines and some houses in the attack, ” he also disclosed.
He said many locals are missing with search parties hurriedly put together, cobbing the bushes for them, while others are being evacuated to safe locations.
Our correspondent also gathered that the attack is coming even when locals displaced in the recent attacks across eight communities in Rafi and Shiroro local government areas are still in the internally displaced persons camps in Kuta, Kagara and Gudu communities.
The attacks which happened three weeks ago claimed 13 lives in Kukoki, Shiroro local government area alone, while the district head of Madaka, Alhaji Zakari Yau, his wife, the village head of Kukoki and four others, including the Secretary of the district council and a retired soldier were kidnapped.
Kwaki called on the state government and military authority to urgently come to the aide of the district and entire Shiroro and Rafi local government areas by deploying troops to the areas which he said, have been under siege for a long time.
Although the police could not be immediately reached for comment on the attack, the Senator representing the zone, Senator Sani Musa condemned the latest attack, described it as one attack too many.
He said it high time Military come to the rescue of the people, stressing that “all indications is that something urgent must be done before the people are completely wipe out. I am highly worried about the growing insecurity in the area”.
Meanwhile the State Emergency Agency (NSEMA) said it has activated emergency response mechanism to deal with the situation.
The Director General of the Agency Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmed Inga said his office is yet to receive report of casualty of the latest attack. (Sunday Sun)
