About 11 natives were killed when bandits attacked Dangulbi community in Maru Local Government Area (LGA) of Zamfara State, on Sunday afternoon.
Sources said the terrorists, believed to be loyal to a notorious kingpin, Damina, attacked farmers on their farmland – an incident that left several others unaccounted for.
Dangulbi is about 100km away from Gusau, the Zamfara State capital.
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The spokesperson for the Zamfara State Police Command, Mr. Mohammed Shehu, confirmed the casualty figure to reporters, on Monday morning, via a telephone chat.
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 Mr. Shehu, the police tactical operatives have begun a confidence-building patrol in the affected community.
His words, “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, 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.
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“He (Damina) attacked Kango village, a 2km settlement away from Dangulbi, and killed seven people. Then yesterday (Sunday), in the afternoon, he proceeded to Dangulbi environs when people were on their farms working.
“They (the terrorists) rounded them up and 14 people were confirmed killed on their various farms and some (persons) are missing,” he added.
The resident identified some of the victims as Lawali Yusuf, Basiru Bakwai, Murtala, Ashiru Suleman, Dayyabu Adamu, Sufiyanu Sani, and Kamalu Sani, among others.
