No fewer than 70 persons have been kidnapped by suspected bandits who invaded Rini town, Bakura local government area of Zamfara State.
According to an eyewitness, the abductors were up to 50 in number who stormed the area with sophisticated weapons and abducted over 70 persons.
According to one Aminu Rini, the bandits arrived the town around 2:30am on Friday August 20th 2021, and started shooting sporadically, pointing out that people could not come out of their houses because of the heavy gunshots that raided the air.
“After the operation, the bandits abducted over seventy residents of the town,” he added.
“The bandits operated in three strategic locations, starting from Sabon Gari then moved to Makarantar Boko and finally operated at the central part of Rini town.”
Continuing, the source said as at the time of launching the attack, no intervention was made by the security agencies even after several calls were made, saying that the security operatives came later in the day with two Hilux vans full of soldiers and spent some hours and left.
“As at the time of the Jumuat prayer, people were still in the town and could not leave. Several appeals have been made to the government to deploy more security operatives for the people in the area”
However Zamfara state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Shehu Muhammad confirmed the incident, adding that those abducted based on the record from the police were sixty six not over seventy as being speculated by the villagers.
According to the police spokesman, the police command has already deployed adequate number of its tactical personnel for rescue operation and search for the bandits.
