A group of bandits operating at the Taraba-Plateau border has abducted 10 cattle merchants and rustled 250 cows.
The incidents, Daily Trust gathered, occurred at Andami town in Karím Lamido LGA of Taraba State on Thursday, the market day.
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The merchants, it was further learnt, had bought the cows from Andami market and were transporting them to different locations when they ran into a road block mounted by the bandits.
The bandits, in their numbers and well-armed, abducted the cattle merchants and took away the cows the merchants had bought from the market.
A community leader, Tanko Bobbo Andami, who narrated the incident to Daily Trust, said over 10,000 bandits were in different camps in the border area and were now in control of all villages and towns along the area between Taraba and Plateau states.
He said the bandits abducted people in the area, rustled hundreds of cows, looted shops and stores, and also raped married women and girls.
He said the bandits had not communicated with the families of the abducted people.
He said the bandits have also stopped people in the area from going to the farms and markets.
Tanko Andami appealed to the Taraba State and federal governments to take urgent steps to free the area from the control of bandits.
The police spokesman, DSP Usman Abdullahi, could not be reached for comment on the incident as he was said to have travelled for the holy pilgrimage.
