By Ummi Ismaeel, Minna
Armed bandits suspected to be Boko Haram members on Sunday sacked eight more communities, abducted no fewer than 30 women, including an Igbo business woman and her sales boy in Fuka district, Shiroro Local Government Area, Niger State.
The affected eight communities and environs, our correspondent gathered, had been deserted for fear of further invasion as at Monday morning following the attack by the armed men numbering over 60.
Residents of the affected district consisting of 1, 569 villagers and environs, according to eyewitness have relocated to Sarkin-Pawa, the headquarters of the Munya Local Government Area as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), while others joined their relatives in Minna, the state capital.
The Sunday night raid on the communities, which is one of the highest single attacks, according to a source, lasted for hours through Monday morning unchallenged as they rode in twos and threes on motorcycles with each carrying AK-47 rifles.
The armed men said to have first attacked a popular businessman in the area, Alhaji Doma Fuka, later proceeded to the house of a member of the Niger State House of Assembly (NSHA), Mr. Andrew Jagaba Doma, but met his absence.
While at the NSHA member’s house, the bandits were said to have rustled several cattle and in the process injured many of his family members and local vigilante group who tried to resist them.
The eyewitness told our correspondent on phone, “Unguwan-magaji, Kulgbaku, Lukodna, Kakuru, Abuza, Kudan, Dinakogbe, and Kubaidnapa villages had been deserted. I can confirm to you that there are no people in these villages as at today (Monday), the bandits have turned the villages to their hiding places and cooking centres”.
Efforts to get the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Abiodun Wasiu, confirm the series of attacks as at the time of filing the report proved abortive as his phone numbers were indicating ‘unreacheable’.
However, a senior official of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) confirmed the attacks and efforts being made to provide temporary shelter for the villagers at the IDPs.
According to the NSEMA officer, who spoke from one of the IDPs in Sarkin Pawa town, “I can confirm attack on Fulka district and this has led to the increase in the number of IDPs in Sarkin-pawa this morning”.
There has been increased cases of armed bandits’ attacks in the last couple of days due to the withdrawal of security operatives from Allawa, Bassa and Zagzaga after the sack of the joint security forces over the killing of some soldiers and burning of their operational vehicles.