No fewer than 11 locals were killed yesterday as bandits attacked Dangulbi community in Maru Local Government Area (LGA) of Zamfara State as insecurity intensified in the area.
Sources told Africa Today News, New York, that the incident happened late Sunday when the terrorists loyal to a notorious kingpin Damina attacked farmers while they were on their farmland – an incident that left several others unaccounted for.
Dangulbi is about 100km away from Gusau, the Zamfara state capital.
The spokesperson for the Zamfara State Police Command, Mohammed Shehu, confirmed the casualty figure to Channels Television on Monday morning via a telephone chat.
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He stated that the police authorities have since deployed a reinforcement team to the area to restore calm and normalcy in the community.
According to Shehu, the police tactical operatives have begun a confidence-building patrol in the affected community.
‘The one at our disposal is 11 people (killed) and the command has already sent a reinforcement team to the affected community and the reinforcing team has been able to return normalcy in the area,’ said the police public relations officer in the state. “They are currently on confidence-building patrol and there is relative normalcy in that axis.’
In separate interviews with reporters, locals lamented that Dangulbi and surrounding communities have been experiencing a series of attacks by bandits in the last few days.
Saifullahi Ibrahim, a resident of Maru LGA, said the notorious bandit demanded a sum of N2million levy from the community in order to allow them to cultivate their farmland in the rainy season, adding that the people did as requested.
‘The wave of attacks on our communities started about three days ago when a bandit kingpin called Damina asked our people to pay N2 million to him to allow them to cultivate their lands,’ he narrated.
According to Ibrahim, Kango which is another village just about 2km away from Dangulbi was attacked last Friday and seven persons were reportedly killed.