NO fewer than 40 members of a vigilante group were feared killed by bandits in Sakaba Local Government Area of Kebbi State on Monday night.
An indigene of the area, Mohammed Lawal, informed The PUNCH on Tuesday that the incident happened around Makuku village.
According to him, members of the vigilante group were going for an operation in Dankolo village when they ran into the bandits’ ambush.
He said, “The bandits might have received information about the movement of the vigilante group’s members, as such they (bandits) laid ambush for them and opened fire on them when they were passing through the forest.
“As I am talking to you now, we have counted over 30 dead bodies of the vigilante members who lost their lives on the spot.
“There are also casualties from the bandits’ side although they returned to the place and evacuated the dead bodies of their members.”
Lawal maintained that the bandits, who came from Niger State, were in the area for a reprisal attack, following the killings of their members by the people of the area two weeks ago.
Efforts to get comments from the state government failed as Governor Atiku Bagudu and his media aides were said to be out of the state as of the time of filing this report.
But the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has expressed sadness over what he described as “the brutal murder of tens of vigilante members in Kebbi State by bandits who ambushed them in the Sakaba/Wassagu Local Government Area.”
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday titled ‘President Buhari expresses sadness over killing of Kebbi vigilantes, demands more proactive efforts.’
The statement quoted the President as saying that, “This egregious level of criminality is shocking and I want to assure Nigerians that I will do all it takes to tackle this monster decisively.
“My greatest preoccupation is the threat to life posed by these murderous gangs and remorseless outlaws who have no slightest regard for the sanctity of life.
“While extending my sympathy to the families of the victims of this savagery, let me use this opportunity to also call on our security forces to be more proactive and redouble their efforts in order to frustrate the operational plans of the terrorists before they even launch attacks.
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