Several communities in the northern zone of Kaduna State are being terrorised by bandits who steal, kill and maim residents at will in the increasing wave of violent crimes, investigation by Daily Trust on Saturday has revealed.
It was gathered that in the past two weeks, many people, mostly businessmen, were killed by the armed men who usually operate in the dark of the night.
Our correspondent gathered that one Alhaji Kabiru Adamu, a businessman and education supervisor in Makarfi local government area was among those killed by the gunmen recently.
A witness who craved for anonymity said: “The gunmen stormed the house of Alhaji Kabir at about 2 am and asked him to give them money. Since he didn’t have any, they began to beat him with clubs, saying that he collected N5 million from the bank that day. The deceased told the gunmen that he only accompanied his brother, who collected the money, to the bank.”
The witnessed added that: “They went to the house of Kabiru’s brother but before they reached there, the wife of the deceased called to tell him that the gunmen were on their way to his house and he escaped.”
Only on Wednesday, the gunmen went to the shop of another businessman, Alhaji Garba Mai Kwai’s shop, in Makarfi town and took valuables worth millions of naira after killing the security guard.
Investigation has also revealed that within the period, the gunmen went to Hunkuyi, headquarters of Kudan local government area, where they killed two people, Filatan and Mubaraka in neighbouring Rogo local government of Kano State, where they killed an unspecified number of people and carted away valuables worth millions of naira.
The senator representing Kaduna North, Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, urged government to take urgent steps to address the menace.
Attempts to get the spokesman of the Kaduna State Police Command, Abubakar Zubairu, failed as his phone was switched off at the time of filing this report.
However, a police source in Zaria told our correspondent that the command was doing its best to end the incessant attacks.