Bandits have abducted 17 people including women and children in Ruwan Dorawa village, Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
A police source who confirmed the incident to the Daily Trust on Tuesday, November 21, 2023, said the attack occurred at 12 midnight on Sunday, November 19, adding that the bandits also killed a police officer.
The Sunday incident was described by many residents as a well-coordinated operation the bandits had ever carried out in the state.
The armed bandits numbering about 150 stormed the village on 50 motorbikes with each bike carrying three persons. The operation was suspected to be led by the popular bandits’ kingpin, Dan Nagala.
On arrival at the village, the bandits were said to have divided themselves into five groups. Three groups were stationed at strategic entrances of the village, while the remaining two entered the village and abducted the villagers.
It was also gathered that unlike the previous operations carried out in some parts of the state, the bandits this time around applied a unique method of operation.
Though the bandits were armed with guns and spent four hours operating in the village, however, the operation was conducted silently, as no single shot was fired to scare the residents.
A resident, who craved anonymity for fear of victimisation, said throughout the 4-hour-long operation, the bandits fired only a single shot that claimed the life of a policeman.
The resident said even though the community had prior knowledge about the coming of the bandits since Friday, that did not stop the bandits from accomplishing their mission, as according to him, all plans put in place to avert the attack were defeated.
He said the community was able to mobilise members of a vigilante group to ambush the bandits on their way to Ruwan Dorawa but the plan was not successful.
“Members of the vigilante took cover at a particular location along Ruwan Dorawa-Kanoma road to ambush the bandits, but they spent the whole night there and the bandits did not show up. We suspect that the bandits also got to know about our plan and therefore changed theirs.
Residents said that up till the time of filing this report, the bandits did not call relatives of the abducted persons to demand ransom.
However, the source within the police said that a team of policemen attached to the Maru Police Divisional Office were dispatched to Ruwan Dorawa on Monday to recover the corpse of the murdered policeman
“Our people were at Ruwan Dorawa village on Monday and they brought the corpse of the policeman to the Maru Police Divisional Office. I am sure the corpse was handed over to the family of the deceased for a befitting burial,” the source added.
