In the Ukum Local Government Area of Benue State’s Ukoosaa-Atam hamlet, ten persons are said to have died on Monday once more.
The locals claimed that one of the opposing bandit groups carried out the attack in retaliation.
This came when bandits in Sayaya town, Matazu Local Government Area, Katsina State, early on Monday morning massacred five persons, injured two more, and kidnapped five more.
Remember how last Friday’s struggle for supremacy between rival bandit gangs Chain and Full Force, both from Benue State’s Ukum LGA, claimed the lives of fifteen of them?
It was learned that the bandits had been carrying out retaliatory attacks, this time against defenseless individuals, ever since last Friday’s struggle for power.
According to a Ukoosaa-Atam resident who spoke with our correspondent over the phone on Tuesday, the gunmen attacked innocent people while riding motorcycles.
“Some local bandits on Monday rode to Ukoosa-Atam, a kilometer after Ayati town, the headquarters of Borikyo council ward, Ukum LGA,” stated the local, who wished to remain anonymous.
The driver and all of the passengers were killed when the assailants ambushed a keke NAPEP (tricycle). The attackers assaulted the nearby homes in the area while riding motorcycles and firing indiscriminately. By the end of the day, ten bodies had been discovered.
“This is just one of the many assaults on the community.”
“It has been from one attack to another within the local government since Chain and Full Force (rival groups) fought over supremacy last Friday,” another neighbor stated.
The people of the Ukum LGA demanded that the federal and state governments provide security.
“We also call on the government to help those whose houses have been destroyed; let the state and federal governments provide security.”
Catherine Anene, the state’s Police Public Relations Officer, said that she was out of town when called.
However, state security adviser Joseph Har asserted that the state government was aware of the circumstances in Ukum LGA and that Governor Hyacinth Alia was making every effort to bring peace to the region and the state as a whole.
According to Har, the administration is making a significant effort to address the state’s security issues, especially those related to the Sankera axis. We’re going to employ the “carrot-and-stick” strategy.
Meanwhile, Sayaya town inhabitants in Katsina State’s Matazu Local Government Area reported that shortly after midnight, a group of bandits entered the town and opened fire, killing five people.
On a distress call, however, police were reported to have confronted the criminals.
The event was confirmed on Tuesday by Abubakar Aliyu, the spokesperson for the Katsina State Police Command.
He claimed, “On November 6, 2023, at approximately 12:55 in the morning, a large group of robbers assaulted Sayaya village in the Matazu Local Government Area of Katsina State. The bandits used firearms, including AK-47 rifles, and fired intermittently.
“Operators were dispatched to the area as soon as they received the report, and they successfully repelled the robbers’ attack by engaging them in a gunfight.
But the attackers managed to shoot five individuals dead, hurt two, and kidnap five more. The wounded were sent to the hospital right once to receive emergency care.
“Used members of the public with information that will aid investigation to come forward and assist the investigation as efforts are being intensified to ensure the rescue of the kidnapped victims unhurt and the arrest of the perpetrators of the dastardly act as the investigation proceeds,” Aliyu continued, expressing condolences to the families of those affected by the attack.
