<\/p>\n
No fewer than 15 persons, including women, children and infants, have been abducted by bandits following a late-night attack on Sabon Layi community in Kakumi Ward, Bakori Local Government Area of Katsina State.<\/p>\n
A source in the community said the incident occurred around 9:45pm last Thursday when armed assailants stormed the area, targeting households linked to a resident identified as Aliyu and his younger brother.<\/p>\n
According to another source, the attackers executed the operation with calculated precision, dividing themselves into two groups.<\/p>\n
One group reportedly staged a cattle rustling incident involving two cows to distract residents, while the second group infiltrated the community and carried out the abductions.<\/p>\n
The gunmen were said to have escaped in separate directions without firing any shots, apparently to avoid attracting attention.<\/p>\n
Residents only realised the scale of the attack after discovering both the missing cattle and abducted persons.<\/p>\n
The attackers reportedly fled through Mununu village in neighbouring Faskari Local Government Area, a route commonly used by criminal elements operating within the region.<\/p>\n
Local security volunteers, including members of the Community Watch Corps and vigilante groups, were said to have mobilised in response.<\/p>\n
However, rescue efforts proved unsuccessful as the assailants had already retreated beyond reach.<\/p>\n
Among those abducted are several minors, including infants.<\/p>\n
Sources also alleged that the attack may be linked to a notorious bandit leader, Kwashen Garwa, who was reportedly part of a peace agreement reached months earlier.<\/p>\n
Communities had experienced relative calm following the deal until the latest incident.<\/p>\n
In a related development, bandits have reportedly imposed a N10 million levy on several farming communities across Faskari and Bakori local government areas. The levy is said to be a condition for residents to access their farmlands during the wet season without interference.<\/p>\n
A source from one of the affected communities disclosed that the bandits warned farmers against clearing or cultivating their land unless the payment is made.<\/p>\n
Some communities are said to have begun consultations and exploring ways to meet the demand in order to carry out farming activities this year.<\/p>\n
Affected communities include Yanshuni, Unguwar Lamido, Zamfarawa, Unguwar Dan Malka, Doma, Ruwan Godiya, Gidan Kare, and Unguwar Wawo.<\/p>\n
A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, expressed concern over the worsening security situation and appealed to the Katsina State Government for urgent intervention.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t go to them; they come to us. Now they have placed a levy that we don\u2019t even know how to pay. Government should please come to our aid. What we need is a permanent solution, not a temporary one,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n
Efforts to reach the state Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Nasir Mu\u2019azu, were unsuccessful as calls to his phone line were not answered.<\/p>\n
As of the time of filing this report, security authorities have yet to issue an official statement on the incidents.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No fewer than 15 persons, including women, children and infants, have been abducted by bandits following a late-night attack on Sabon Layi community in Kakumi Ward, Bakori Local Government Area of Katsina State. A source in the community said the incident occurred around 9:45pm last Thursday when armed assailants stormed the area, targeting households linked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":240311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[235,2819],"class_list":["post-242742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-bandits","tag-kastina"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bandits.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}