Tears as bandits attack Niger community again, kill eight

Hell was let loose in the early hours of Sunday when armed men attacked Senator David Umaru’s community, Kaure, Kwaki Ward in the Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.

The PUNCH learnt that the bandits killed eight locals in the early morning offensive.

The councillor representing the ward, Malam Jafaru Kwaki, told our correspondent on the telephone on Sunday that the suspected bandits stormed the community on motorcycles shooting sporadically into the air.

“I just received the sad development of an invasion again of a community in my area by armed men dressed in black. It has become their characteristics to storm the community on motorcycles shooting. From the information at my disposal, eight people lost their lives in the attack which lasted for hours.

“We cannot ascertain the number of people injured in the attack yet because many escaped into the bushes with bullet wounds but we were able to move 15 who sustained varying degrees of injury to nearby health centres,” he added.

Kwaki said the attackers rustled cows, dispossessed residents of the community of their cash and foodstuff at gunpoint.

“They burnt two vehicles, five machines and some houses in the attack,” he said.

The police could not be immediately reached for comment on the attack, but the state emergency agency said it had activated  emergency response mechanism to deal with the situation.

The Director-General of the agency, Alhaji Ibrahim Inga, said his office had yet to receive report of casualty. Punch