Last Friday, waylaying bandits stormed two farming communities — Rimi and Bagwas — under Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi State, killing 20 unsuspecting locals and destroying a number of houses.
According to reports, 12 persons were killed in Rimi while 8 lost their lives in Bagwas. The survivors of the attack had since relocated to neighbouring states — Plateau, Taraba and Yobe.
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The two communities are now shadows of themselves as only animals and a handful of youth with local Dane guns remained behind.
DISPLACED FAMILY
A survivor of the attack, Mohammed Auwal Zaki, a husband of two narrated that his family had being relocated to Yobe and Taraba.
He said that the bandits who numbered about 200 came on motorcycles, brandishing dangerous weapons.
“They came on Friday, shortly after most of us had returned from jummat (prayer),” he told a local press.
The survivor said before villagers would have gathered themselves, the bandits had started waylaying the villagers.
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“They were shooting and hacking people with machetes and then setting them on fire,” he added. “I was lucky because none of my family members were killed or injured. We kept running and running until we were safe but it was a most difficult experience because of the terrain. One of my wives is now in Yobe with her children while the other one is in Taraba.”
Zaki explained that he narrowly escaped the carnage with his family through a thick forest and River Gwana.
“They came at about 4:30. We just heard sounds of gunshots everywhere I came running with my wives and I saw them setting houses ablaze,” he continued. “We had just returned from harvesting farm produce with bags of rice and maize, beans and so on.”
Further, Zaki lamented that the bandits set alight their farm produce, adding he lost over 40 bags of maize and 100 bags of rice.
‘DEFEND YOURSELVES’
Bala Mohammed, the Bauchi State governor, urged residents to defend themselves from the bandits killing them.
The governor, however, charged security agencies in the state to revisit their strategy against such devastating attacks by intensifying surveillance with a view to restoring normalcy in the affected areas.
During a condolence visit to the head of Gwana, the governor sympathised with attacked communities, saying the perpetrators used the advantage of the forest linked with villages of Gombe, Plateau and Taraba.
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He encouraged local vigilante groups to collaborate with conventional security outfits in carrying out daily operations, stressing that the informants would be fished out with a view to prosecuting them.
The governor gave N1 million to families of the deceased and asked the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to take inventory of the houses and properties destroyed to enable the government to provide relief materials.
Also, Bauchi State Police Commissioner, Aminu Alhassan claimed the police had responded to the attacks in good time and neutralised the miscreants in their numbers. He called on the communities to provide the police with information that would lead to the apprehension of more criminals in the area.
