Four days before abducting 25 students at the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, armed bandits on 12 November kidnapped over 40 women and their babies in the same local government area in Kebbi State, residents have revealed.
The women were working on a rice farm in the Danko Wasagu Local Government Area when the bandits abducted them.
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Residents said bandits had long been abducting residents unchallenged and unreported, until the 17 November abduction of the schoolgirls brought banditry in the area to global attention.
Kabir Yusuf, a youth leader in Danko Wasagu town, told PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday that the LGA, located in the southern senatorial district of the state, is under the siege of a terrorist group.
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“The abduction of the schoolgirls is one reported case in a series of unreported incidents in the local government area. Even after the abduction of the schoolgirls, kidnapping for ransom continued unabated, with residents suffering in silence.
“The bandits on 21 November invaded ‘Unashi’ and ‘Gandun-Wasagu’, towns and abducted several peasants. Over 90 people from the LGA are currently in captivity as we speak (Sunday evening), and nobody is speaking for them aside from their loved ones who are helpless and vulnerable,” Mr Yusuf said.
Mr Yusuf stated that the incessant attacks had forced many residents to flee the most vulnerable communities in the Wasagu LGA to where they consider safe for them.
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The police spokesperson in the state, Nafiu Abubakar, said he had yet to be briefed on the incidents in the areas.
The mass abduction incidents in Kebbi add to the escalating insecurity across Nigeria, where armed groups terrorise citizens, killing and kidnapping at will.
Over 300 students were kidnapped from a Catholic primary and secondary school in Niger State last week.
In Kwara State, bandits attacked a church where they killed three worshippers and kidnapped 38 others. The worshippers were later released on Monday.
READ ALSO:Bandits control Kwara forest, say freed worshippers
The Niger and Kebbi abduction victims remained in captivity as of the time of this report.
In Borno, a brigadier general and other security officials were killed recently when terrorists ambushed a military operation.
In Abuja, a police officer was killed on Friday when a security team foiled an attack by about 30 gunmen on a community in the Bwari Area Council.
The worsening security situation caused President Bola Tinubu to cancel his scheduled attendance at the G20 Summit in South Africa. He was, instead, represented by his deputy, Kashim Shettima
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