Agaju Madugba, Katsina

 

Bandits operating in parts of Katsina State struck again in the early hours of today when they raided Wurma village in Kurfi local government and abducted some 15 women, according to police.

“The DPO in Kurfi reported that today (Wednesday), at about 00:15 hours, unknown gunmen in large numbers, invaded  Murma village in Kurfi Local Government Area and abducted 15 women, including the daughter and daughter-in-law of the village head, Alhaji Mustapha Mohammed,” the Katsina Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO),  Anas Gezawa, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement noted that the bandits also rustled an unspecified number of cattle.

Reports, however, indicate that the hoodlums might have released some of the captives with a specific warning that they were set to make a comeback except the concerned authorities met their demand.

The village head who spoke in an interview at Kurfi said that “the people who attacked us were many and all of them were carrying guns.

About seven of them entered my room and ransacked the whole place demanding money but I told them that I didn’t have money.

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“They collected my two sets of my babanriga but later dropped them when some of them argued that the clothes could be used to catch them.

“They have released some the women they abducted with a message that they would return if we failed to give them N10 million so that they would protect us from further attacks.”

Katsina had since turned a haven for bandits and kidnappers who operate regularly around communities in eight of the 34 local government areas in the state.

The local government areas are, Jibia, Batsari, Safana, Dan-Musa, Kankara, Faskari, Dandume and Sabuwa which share boundaries with Rugu forest which reports say, the bandits use as operational base.

Acts of banditry and cattle rustling in Katsina predate the current administration of Governor Aminu Bello Masari.

But on assumption of office in 2015, the governor intervened, crushing the menace with an amnesty programme which saw repentant cattle thieves and bandits dropping their arms and embracing the dialogue option.

But indications suggest that some four years on, that initiative might have since hit the rocks with the resurgence of the menace.