Suspected bandits on Wednesday killed one person and kidnapped at least 15 others including three members of the same family and sympathizers heading for a burial at Birnin Gwari, in Kaduna State.
Sources from Birnin Gwari confirmed that the bandits had staged multiple operations on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning at Unguwan Yaku, a notorious spot used by bandits to launch attacks on motorists.
Shehu Hassan, a resident of Birnin Gwari told our correspondents that the first attack took place while a woman, alongside her two children and a driver were conveying the corps of her husband, Malam Yahuza Mai Hula who died after a brief illness in Zaria.
Hassan said the bandits had shot and killed the driver and the vehicle he was driving had lost control and fell into a ditch. He said in an attempt to abduct other occupants of the vehicle, the bandits had been distracted by another vehicle giving the woman and her children an opportunity to flee.
Hassan explained that one of the boys had later returned to the scene of the attack in search of his mother, only to be kidnapped by the bandits.
“Also abducted were two other sons of Malam Yahuza who left Kaduna in the morning for Birnin Gwari to participate in their father’s burial and also sympathizers from Kano who were coming for the burial. None of them knew of the attack on Tuesday night, the sympathizers had spent the night in Kaduna and left the city early Wednesday morning for Birnin Gwari but were kidnapped, on the same spot on Wednesday at 7am.”
When contacted, the Kaduna State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Muhammad Jalige said the District Police Officer (DPO) in charge of the area was yet to brief the command on the incident.