- Rustle unspecified number of cattle
- Shops, POS centers looted
- 20 people whisked away
From John Adams, Minna
For over three hours, bandits in their large numbers held sway in Rijau town, the headquarters of Rijau local government area of Niger state, leaving tales of woos among the people.
A source close to Rijau town told our correspondent on phone that the bandits, riding on motorcycles invaded the town at about 1:15pm and operated until 3:30pm and away with unspecified numbers cows and other animals.
According to our source, the bandits, among them women had trailed the villagers who had earlier moved their cattle from the villages to Rijau town for safety when they learnt about the movement of the bandits only to be invaded by the gunmen.
It was further gathered that the bandits numbering well over 200, divided themselves into groups and move from one part of the town to the other, dispossessing the people of their belongings.
Provision shops, Point of Service (POS) centers were attacked by the bandits with cash and other items carted away.
According to our source, they (bandits) were constantly being hailed by their accompanying women who demanded those who are man enough to come out and challenge their men as sporadic shooting rented the air.
Women and children scrambled for cover but about 20 members of the town were however not lucky as they were whisked away by the bandits.
Although nobody was killed according to our source, few members of the town sustained gunshot injuries from stray bullets due to the sporadic shooting.
While the operation lasted, all the security agents in the town took to their hills even though no security post was invaded by the bandits.
It was gathered that a helicopter which our source said he could not identify nor know it missions, later hovered round the town, one hour after the bandits had escaped to safety with their looted items.
As at the time of filing this report, there was no statement from either the government or the state police command over the incident.
Rijau local government shared border with Kebbi state which is constantly being terrorized by bandits.
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