From Salisu Zakari Maradun, Gusau
Various communities in Zamfara state have continued to flee their respective towns and villages following frequent attacks on them by bandits which also led to the abduction and killing of a number of them, checks by The Authority in the state had shown.
The attacks which had recently involved some local governments in Maradun, Kaura Namoda and Maru local Governments had swept the lives of over 70 innocent people in addition to the abduction of over 280 people who are currently, at the time of filling in this report, in different camps of the bandits across the state.
According to the checks, as a result of the attack, a large number of people who narrowly escaped, relocated to Gusau, the state capital, while others took to their heels for other places where they could settle along with some relations.
Reports say the victims were seen in tens roaming the streets of the city helplessly looking for shelter with hunger as there was no provision made by the government to take care of them.
According to the checks, farming activities which commenced in earnest few weeks back have come to a halt as the bandits became wild in abducting and killing farmers who mistakenly attempt to go to their farms while the government, despite claim to have come for the rescue of the people of the state folded its arms.
One of the victims from Yartasha town of Maru Local Government, one of the badly affected local government, Alhaji Isah Gundumi told our reporter that for over three months now he had no rest and all his five farms have been devastated by the terrorizing bandits who deprived them of the opportunity to remain in their ancestral homes.
According to him, no day passes without having one person or another killed or abducted by the bandits and who will again ask for ransom.
“We have nothing now at our disposal, we are ruined as these people have taken away all we had and they did not stop there in taking away our effects, they also in addition , raped our wives and even the minors. As I am talking to you now (referring to this our reporter), “we have a number of our women along with their daughters of marriageable age in the captivity of these people and the government did not do anything to rescue them”, he added with tears in his eyes.
“ I don’t even know the whereabouts of my children and my two wives since the day we were sacked from our village”, revealed one, Hanafi Sa’adu, a resident of Dan Isah village of Kaura Namoda Local Government, who also lost his nephew to bandits in the recent attack launched on the village few days ago.
Hanafi stated that just few hours after he received an information from a neighboring village of the killing of his cousin by bandits, their village was stormed during which he and his family had to run for their dear lives and only to be told later that he fell victim by losing one of his own.
“Everybody in this state knows that we were attacked and during that attack, no fewer than 53 people were abducted by the bandits and up to now they have not been released,” stated Idris Samaila of Maradun town, the headquarters of Maradun local government.
