Gunmen abduct farmers while transporting yams to market

Three farmers – Maikusawa Usman, Hussaini Danjuma and Sheneni Yakubu – have been abducted by gunmen while conveying yams from Paikon Bassa community in Abaji area of Abuja to Lambata market in Niger State.

Daily Trust report that the Paikon – Bassa community, which is under Gurdi ward of Abaji Area Council in the FCT, shares boundaries with Lambata in Niger State through River Gurara.

• Shortage of lecturers hits polytechnics
• NIGERIA DAILY: How Misinformation Puts Some Nigerians At Health Risk

A member of the Paikon-Bassa community simply identified as Dangana said the incident happened around 9pm on Sunday when the victims were conveying a fully loaded pick-up van of yam tubers to Lambata market ahead of the market day being today (Monday).

He said the gunmen, who were wielding AK-47 rifles, suddenly emerged from the bush and flagged down the pickup at gunpoint before they whisked the victims into the bush.

“They spared the driver and asked him to move with the goods but they went away with three owners of the yams into the bush,” he said.

The chief of Gulida chiefdom, Abubakar Sadauna, while speaking to our reporter through telephone on Monday, confirmed the abduction of the farmers.

He decried incessant abduction of his people by kidnappers in his chiefdom, saying farmers are worst hit by activities of bandits and kidnappers in the area.

“Just last night a message came to me that three farmers who were conveying yams to Lambata market in Niger State were abducted on Sunday night along Paikon-Bassa road, which shares a border with Niger State,” he said.

The monarch, who blamed the victims for taking the risk to convey their crops at such odds hours despite the incessant kidnapping in his chiefdom, said contact was yet to be established with the kidnappers.

“At least, I had expected the victims to understand the security challenge we have been facing due to activities of kidnappers and bandits, instead of taking such a risk to convey their crops overnight to Lambata in Niger State,” he said.

When contacted, the spokesman of Niger State Police Command, DSP Wasiu Abiodun, claimed not to be aware of the incident.