Bandits (file image)
By Aliu Ahmed
Armed bandits have hit the ever-busy Gusau-Funtua highway, abducting unspecified number of travellers.
Yusuf Tsafe, a commuter, who is still stranded around the area, told Channels Television that the bandits stormed the highway in the early hours of Thursday and mounted a roadblock around the Tazame axis of the road.
He said that the bandits, in their large numbers with about 50 motorcycles, each carrying three persons, abducted an unspecified number of travellers.
Also read: Bandits kill six, abduct many in Sokoto
“They blocked the road around 7am, and till around 9am, they were still there; we just parked by the roadside waiting for the military to clear the road, we are seeing the bandits taking people inside the bush.
“The military guntruck moved to the area earlier, we were just hearing gunshots, but they are yet to open the road. Till now, no vehicle has been allowed to pass.”
Another commuter also confirmed that Magazu – Kucheri road, which also links Gusau to Funtua had been blocked by bandits Thursday morning.
“The military men asked us to stop because the bandits blocked the road, we are still waiting for them to clear the road,” the source said.
When contacted, the spokesperson of the Zamfara State Police Command, ASP Yazid Abubakar, said additional troops, especially operatives of the Nigerian Police Mobile Squad, had been deployed to the affected areas to clear the road.
Zamfara is one of several states in the North-Western and Central Nigeria terrorised by heavily armed gangs, who carry out mass abductions for ransom as well as burning and looting homes.
The gangs, who maintain camps in a huge forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states, have also undertaken large-scale kidnappings of pupils from schools in recent years.
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