Written By Isma’il Adamu; Edited By Godwin Duru
Residents and travelers in many parts of Katsina State have expressed worry over the rising spate of kidnappings and bandit raids on villages in recent weeks.
Reports from local communities indicate that no fewer than eight kidnap incidents were carried out in the last one week across Kankara, Malumfashi, Matazu, Musawa, Dutsinma and Kankia local government areas where about nine people were abducted.
Eyewitnesses in the affected areas told Radio Nigeria that most of the attacks were carried out in broad daylight by bandits who ambushed travelers and took them into deep forest trenches mostly on motorcycles.
In two of the incidents, six travelers sustained injuries when the bandits opened fire on four vehicles traveling along Marabar Kankara-Malumfashi road last Monday where three of the travelers were abducted.
Earlier in the month, a former Director of Defence Information, Major General Rabe Abubakar, was abducted alongside his wife along the Matazu-Kafinsoli road which has been marked by travellers as a kidnappers’ den.
The bandits who paraded the retired military officer and his wife in a widely circulated video, are demanding the release of three of their members who were arrested by security agents during an operation in Jikamshi in Musawa local government area recently.
Three commercial vehicle drivers, Nura Abubakar, Isiya Eka and Hamisu Awwal, lamented that there is no safe route to Zamfara or Kaduna State as bandits carry out random operations along the Jibia-Gurbi road, Dutsinma-Marabar Kankara road, Kafinsoli Musawa road and Gidan Mutum Daya-Malumashi road.
Despite repeated assurances by security agencies, the kidnappings have persisted, crippling commercial, agricultural and transport activities across eleven local government areas in the state.
Meanwhile, the Katsina State Police Command has, in a statement, assured residents and travelers that the command was working with sisters security agencies and the state government to check the kidnap incidents and bring the perpetrators to book.
