Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, has arrived Minna, the Niger State capital to begin a security meeting in response to the siege the state is in following the kidnap of an unconfirmed number of students, teachers, and others from the Government Science College, Kagara over the night.
He had been in Abuja, on his way to Minna from Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, as part of a Northern Governors delegation, seeking to douse the tension over bandits/herders activities in the South-West.
But in his own backyard, anger is raging from exasperated citizens who can no longer understand why government has no handle on ongoing banditry, which Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmed Gumi has described as insurgency.
Everyday.ng reports that the Chief of Staff to the Niger State Governor was on his way from Kagara in Rafi Local Government Area (LGA) on Sunday when he narrowly missed been kidnapped by bandits.
A wedding party of 18 in a bus that arrived the ambush point at Gundu village a few minutes before was unlucky as they were kidnapped and moved into the nearby forest.
Last year, bandits stormed Kagara, and for hours, held residents of the LGA headquarters bondage, shooting and looting.
Tuesday night in typical fashion, bandits stormed the Government Science School, taking away students, teachers, and family members reports filtering say
One student was shot dead as the photo below shows.
Reports by PRNigeria said the bandits in the Tuesday night attack, overpowered the School security guards before having a field day with their operations.
However, some students escaped after the raid. A headcount is being conducted at the school in the wee hours of Wednesday to ascertain the actual number of missing students.
But PRNigeria also gathered that security agencies were able to detect the coordinate and nature of the area, and have started tracing the bandits’ movement while NAF aircrafts have been seen hovering in the air to track the location of the students.
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State had barely 24 hours ago expressed outrage at the recent killing of the Village Head of Kusherki in Rafi Local Government Area, Mas’ud Abubakar and abduction of his wife, children and some others by Armed Bandits.
A similar attack took place at Kachuae under Munya local government area where nine vigilante were killed and twenty three (23) abducted.
The Governor, in a statement, said the increasing activities of kidnappers and bandits in the state are becoming a nightmare to the people.
Governor Sani Bello described as callous and regrettable, the murder of the traditional title holder and numerous others challenging the security agencies to intensify their search to ‘fish-out’ and ensure that the perpetrators of such heinous acts are brought to justice.
“The situation, particularly in the last 72 hours, has become regrettably alarming! While efforts are ongoing to secure the release of the abducted NSTA passengers, we heard that of Kusherki and Kachuae. We are witnessing these attacks now, almost, on daily basis and it is worrisome”, the statement said.
▪︎ Additional reports by PRNigeria