Terrorists Abduct Over 75 Villagers In Bakura, Northwest Nigeria

At least 75 residents of Rini town in Bakura Local Government Area (LGA) of Zamfara State, Northwest Nigeria were Friday morning, Aug. 20 abducted by a terror gang which invaded the town.

Bakura LGA has become one of the famous theatre of terrorism  and a home to the notorious terror groups operating in Dajin-Yamma, Fagi forest.

According to local sources, the attack follows the expiration of an ultimatum issued by the terror gang to residents of the town. 

“One of the  terror gangs suspected to be Kachalla’s group numbering close to 50 invaded Rini town and abducted over 75 persons on Friday, between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.,” Mustapha Bala, a resident who escaped the attack, told HumAngle.

“I was not sleeping when the gunmen arrived at the town around 3 a.m. I heard an unusual heavy sound of some special motorcycles overnight. The group started shooting sporadically.”

“So, no one came out because we all knew it was these terrorists again. They moved from one house to another in search of those to abduct.”

Dan-Isah Rini, also a resident of Rani town, said the terrorists dressed in  “black angel” outfits and were carrying heavy guns. “They abducted my elder brothers, Tukur and Mamman. But I managed to escape,” he narrated. Rini added that “they then moved to Makarantar Boko and later the central part of Rini town.”

Residents of the area lamented that no security personnel were deployed to counter the attack at the time the terrorists were operating the community. 

“We received first hand information from my friend in Yakofoji who regained freedom this week after payment of N8,250,000. He told me that their captors said they would terrorise Rini as their next target. Today’s incident happened three days after,” said a resident who pleaded for anonymity for security reasons. 

The source disclosed that “we made calls to the authorities to forestall this. Yet this happened without any security operatives in sight.” He explained that later in the day, two Hilux full of soldiers came to the town and spent some hours and left. 

Muhammad Shehu, police spokesperson in Zamfara state confirmed the incident. Shehu, however, claimed that  66 persons were abducted. He added that the state police command has already deployed an adequate number of its tactical personnel to rescue the kidnapped residents of the area.  

Meanwhile, another group of terrorists launched an attack for five hours on the residents of Masamar Mudi, from Friday at 9:35 p.m. till Saturday at 2:15 a.m. The terrorists killed two women and abducted an unknown number of others. 

Many men and women ran away from the town into the bush and nearby villages during the night attack. Mustapha Muhammad Masama, a resident of the area said “we cannot ascertain the number of people kidnapped or killed in Masama.”

“We are just returning from the bush. We only understand that the terrorists killed two women and took away many of our people. This is the first attack we have experienced here.”