ABUJA, Nov 28 (The African Portal) – Exactly seven days after over 300 students were abducted from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri in Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State, bandits have launched another deadly attack in Palaita community, Erena Ward, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State. They abducted 24 people, including a pregnant woman, from a rice farm and chopped off the hand of a blind man.
However, the Police said 10 people were kidnapped.
The bandits also attacked a community in Abuja, and kidnapped six girls and a boy.
This happened as the Diocese of Kaduna, Anglican Communion, announced that Venerable Edwin Achi, Priest-in-Charge of Ebenezer Anglican Church, Ungwan Maijero, who was abducted on October 28, had died in kidnappers. The incident prompted the cancellation of the much-anticipated ‘Stand Up for Jesus 2025’ event.
Meanwhile, Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, yesterday, declared that the armed forces were closing in on eliminating bandits terrorising parts of the country, despite the recent resurgence of school abductions.
Coming on a day that the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, disclosed that 11,566 Police personnel withdrawn from VIP duties had been redeployed to under-served communities, Catholic Cardinal John Onaiyekan, urged the Federal Government to ensure quick solution to internal insecurity by adequately equipping officers on ground rather than relying on recruiting 20,000 policemen.
How bandits kidnapped 24 in Niger
A source in the community said the attackers struck at about 2:00pm on Wednesday while residents were harvesting their crops.
Despite Palaita being only five kilometres from a military base in Erena, the bandits reportedly escaped with the victims before security personnel could respond.
In a separate incident earlier that day, another group of armed men invaded the Kakuru community, also in Erena Ward, brutalised a blind resident and severed his right hand after taking a mobile phone from him.
Vanguard gathered that the bandits invaded a farmland in Palaita community, Erena Ward in Shiroro LGA where farmers were harvesting their rice and whisked the workers and pregnant woman away.
The invasion and abduction of the farmers happened at 2pm without any hindrance.
The bandits were said to have driven straight to the farm, started shooting sporadically, rounded up the victims and fled before the arrival of the military to the scene.
“From all indications, it seems the bandits had a mission and the mission was to dislodge the farmers and take them away. They were said to have driven straight to the farm, started shooting and by the time the farmers knew what was happening, they had been rounded up and led to mount waiting motorcycles and taken away.
“We are not sure the exact destination they were taken to and no communication has been opened up between the bandits, and the immediate families of those affected or any other contacts,” a community source, who wanted anonymity, declared.
Also in another community called Kakuru in the same Erena ward, bandits were said to have chopped off the right hand of a blind man for not “cooperating” with them when asked some “vital” questions.
It was learned that the bandits met the blind man at home and wanted to collect the mobile phone they saw with him.
“The bandits arrived at the community at about 8:00am, met only the blind man at home because other residents of the community had gone to their farms.
“Not knowing who they are because of his sight, he explained to the gunmen that the mobile phone does not belong to him, saying the owner had gone to the farm.
“This refusal did not go down well with them. After collecting the phone forcefully from him, one of the bandits ordered that his right hand be chopped off for refusing to cooperate with them, and it was done immediately,” the source disclosed.
Credit: Vanguard
