Bandits bomb Niger communities, kill scores

Barely one month after gunmen in their numbers invaded Galkogo community in Shiroro local government area of Niger state, killing 11 members of the Joint Security Task Force and unspecified numbers of villagers, they again launched another attack and burnt down the entire buildings in the community.

The gunmen who invaded the community in the early hours of Monday in about 50 motorcycles, according to the villagers, first of all burnt down the three buildings housing the Joint Security TaskForce under renovation after last month’s attack.

According to a source close to the community, after burning down the Joint Security Task Force camp, the gunmen moved from house to house and set ablaze all the buildings in the community.

The attack, which our source said started at about 1am, yesterday, lasted till 6am when the gunmen were seen moving out of the community with sacks loaded with food stuffs and other valuables on their motorcycles.

Chairman of the Council, Mallam Suleiman Chukuba, while confirming the latest attack to Daily Sun, said the gunmen are not bandits but Boko Haram, going by the sophistication of the weapons they were said to be carrying, including explosive devices.

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One of the explosive devices planted round the community by the gunmen, according to him, went off this morning, destroying a Hilux Van belonging to the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corp (NSCDC) on their way to the community, to ascertain the level of destruction by the gunmen.

Only two out of the number of NSCDC operatives in the vehicle survived the explosion and are in critical condition, receiving treatment at a government facility in Minna, the state capital.

“As I speak to you, no single building is standing in the community, everything was set ablaze and the entire community is deserted. Right now we cannot ascertain the total number of people that have been killed, the situation is quite serious.

“These are Boko Haram insurgents, not bandits because they were heavily equipped with sophisticated weapons, including explosive devices. This morning, a Civil Defence vehicle ran into one of the explosive devices, their vehicle destroyed and many of them were killed,” he said.

Before the invasion, the gunmen had, on Saturday, attacked Pelelle, Galape and Gofan Keremi villages in Galkogo district, kidnapped 12 people and injured a number of the villagers.

The Galkogo community had remained without security since last month’s attack, which left many members of the Joint Security Task Force dead.

Galkogo community serves as a transit route through which the gunmen launch attacks on other communities in the area, but the presence of the joint security task force has been a stumbling block to them, hence, the need to dislodge the security agents through relentless attacks.

Sun