Bandits have struck again in Zamfara State, abducting travellers on the Gusau–Funtua Highway in the early hours of Thursday.
The bandits blocked the busy highway in the early hours and ferried away kidnapped unlucky commuters to their bush camps.
Narrating the ordeal, a man who escaped being taken away, Yusuf Tsafe, said the bandits riding on about 50 motorcycles, abducted an unspecified number of travellers.
Tsafe said the armed men mounted a barricade in the Tazame area of the highway.
“They entered the road at about 7 a.m. and till about 9 a.m., they were still there. We just parked by the roadside waiting for the military to clear the road. We are seeing the bandits taking people inside the bush.
“The military guntruck moved to the area earlier. We were just hearing gunshots, but they are yet to open the road. Till now, no vehicle has been allowed to pass,” Tsafe told Channels Television.
Besides the Tazame area incident, the bandits barricaded the Magazu–Kucheri Road which also links Gusau to Funtua on Thursday morning.
Another traveller said, “The military men asked us to stop because the bandits blocked the road. We are still waiting for them to clear the road”.
Commenting on the incident, the Zamfara State Police spokesman, ASP Yazid Abubakar, said additional troops, including the operatives of the Nigerian Police Mobile Squad, had been deployed in the affected areas.