- Injure Scores, Police begin manhunt for criminal elements
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – Suspected armed bandits left 17 people dead in an early morning attack on Monday when they invaded a mosque located at Maza-Kula village in Mashegu Local Government Area of Niger State.
Reports said that in the attack, many people were injured while 18 others were abducted by the dare-devil bandits.
Confirming the attack, the Commissioner of Police, Mr Monday Kuryas, however, said the bandits killed an unspecified number of people while seven other worshipers were taken away from the mosque.
Kuryas said the incident occurred on October 25, 2021, at about 0530 hours when the gunmen attacked the village, disclosing that property worth millions of Naira belonging to one Alhaji Abubakar Maigandus in the village were destroyed in the deadly attack.
The Police boss, who confirmed that security personnel shot dead one of the bandits, said the incident was understood to be a reprisal attack resulting from a long-standing communal feud.
He said additional security personnel had since been deployed to the affected community as a manhunt for the gunmen continues with the Command determined to arrest all other miscreants undermining peace in the area.
Kuryas urged residents, especially those in the rural areas, to always approach the Command with credible information that would assist Police personnel deployed across the state in arresting and prosecuting all those involved in criminal acts.
“We are battle-ready to confront any form of criminal elements as long as good residents will volunteer credible information on the movement of dubious characters in their midst,” Kuryas said.
Eyewitness account said the armed men, who arrived in the village on a long motorcycles’ convoy, made straight to the mosque where they started shooting sporadically to scare the people away.
The source reported that the bandits gunned down some of the people who rushed out of the Mosque while others trapped inside were also shot at close range and left in their pools of blood.
It was gathered that when calm returned after the attack, no fewer than 18 persons were reported missing and their whereabouts unknown till now while many scampering for safety sustained varying degrees of injuries.
A resident, who pleaded anonymity, said they were caught unaware, adding; “The entire village was calm with people in different mosques performing their morning prayers only to start hearing sporadic shooting and later heard that many people had been killed, others injured and some abducted. We are yet to know where they were taken to or those behind it.”
Speaking about the incident, Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Matane, put the number of those killed in the Mosque at 16, adding that others were killed at Kaboji village by the same armed men.
He disclosed that the state Government has already dispatched a team of Military personnel to comb the area and fish out the bandits for prosecution.
In his reaction, the Council Chairman, Alhaji Alhassan Isa Maza-Kuka, described the attack as devastating, saying one of the injured persons in a critical condition has been referred to Minna General Hospital for further medical attention. – With Vanguard report
