Seven people have been killed and seven others, including three university students, abducted in separate attacks in Sokoto, Bauchi and Nasarawa states.
In Sokoto State, bandits attacked Lajinge community in Sabon Birni Local Government Area in the early hours of Wednesday, killing six residents and injuring five others.
Residents said the attackers invaded the village around midnight and operated until about 2:20 a.m., shooting indiscriminately and causing panic before rustling an unspecified number of livestock.
A resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the attackers arrived on motorcycles in large numbers.
The victims have since been buried according to Islamic rites.
Efforts to obtain official confirmation were unsuccessful, as calls to the lawmaker representing the area and the spokesman of the Sokoto State Police Command went unanswered.
1 killed, 4 abducted in Bauchi
In Bauchi State, one person was killed and four others abducted in separate attacks on Kagadama and Bagel villages in Dass Local Government Area.
The attackers have reportedly contacted the victims’ families and demanded N50 million ransom.
A former member of the Bauchi State House of Assembly and House of Representatives aspirant, Maryam Bagel, raised the alarm in a Facebook post.
She said four people were kidnapped in Kagadama, while another resident, identified as Shahibi, was shot dead in Bagel in the presence of his wife and children.
Bagel said the gunmen later returned to Kagadama on Tuesday to abduct another shop owner, who escaped after they opened fire.
She said the attackers instead kidnapped three others, including a 10-year-old boy attending the shop, a sick young man who had just returned from the hospital and another resident.
The Police Public Relations Officer in Bauchi, SP Nafiu Habib, confirmed the attacks, saying operatives had launched efforts to rescue the victims and arrest the perpetrators.
3 FULafia students abducted
In Nasarawa State, gunmen abducted three students of the Federal University of Lafia (FULafia) from their off-campus hostel along Awe Road near the university’s temporary site in Akunza, Lafia.
Police spokesman SP Ramhan Nansel said the command received a distress call around 9:21 p.m on Tuesday after the gunmen forced their way into the students’ residence.
He said the hostel is located in an isolated area near a bush path leading to Awe, making it vulnerable to criminal attacks.
Nansel said the Commissioner of Police, CP Shetima Jauro Mohammed, immediately deployed tactical teams and patrol operatives, leading to the rescue of one of the abducted students.
He said efforts had been intensified to rescue the remaining two victims and arrest the kidnappers.
