At least 15 people have been killed and several others injured during a gunfight between bandits and vigilante group members in Falale village of Jibia area of Katsina State on Tuesday.
Local sources told 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE that the clash took more than an hour before the bandits withdrew from the village.
This newspaper reports that this would be the first time a bandits’ attack or a clash between bandits and local security agents is taking place for over a year after local government authorities struck a deal with bandits’ leaders in the community.
Tuesday’s gunfight occurred after residents stopped a lone bandit walking into the community with a herd of cattle and his rifle, a community leader told our reporter over the phone.
“When some youth saw the bandits moving with the cattle, they stopped him and started questioning him, he ran away and left the cows. The bandit went and called his friends who came on several motorcycles armed with rifles.
“Before they returned, the young men also informed vigilante group members who came from some neighbouring villages because they knew the bandits would return to attack the community,” he said.
The source said the bandits also took away some of the cattles that were the cause of the gunfight.
A security source who asked for anonymity told this newspaper that the bandits had raided a community in Niger Republic two days ago but kept the cattles on the border.
“One bandit was moving the cattle today when he crossed into Falale. The community youth stopped him and invited vigilante group members from Kadobe and Farun Bala to retrieve the cattles from the bandit but he ran away and informed his friends,” the security source said.
When contacted, the police spokesman in the state, Abubakar Sadik Aliyu said he was busy and would get back to this reporter but didn’t.
He also didn’t respond to SMS and WhatsApp messages sent to him over the attack.
