Kogi vigilantes avenge leader’s death, kill 11 bandits

By Abubakar Saidq Isah

Following the Tuesday killing of Alhassan Alhassan, a vigilante commander in Kogi State, members of the vigilante group reinforced back to the forest and killed 11 bandits and rescued two abductees.

A member of the vigilante group who was part of the operation but preferred anonymity, said the vigilantes reinforced with hunters and stormed the forest on Thursday morning at Ottoyi village which shares border with Niger State.

He said his men engaged the kidnappers in a shootout which led to the killing of 11 of the bandits, adding that scores of the kidnappers escaped with bullet wounds. He said they also destroyed two kidnappers’ camps and recovered army uniforms, magazines, drugs, energy drinks, foodstuff and condiments, as well as rubber boots.

The state’s Commissioner for Solid Minerals, Engr Abubakar Bashir Gegu, who is a native of the area, confirmed the incident through telephone with our reporter.

The spokesman of the police in the state, CSP Williams Ovye Aya, did not pick calls or reply to an SMS to react on the incident.