Bandits Open Fire On Themselves, 12 Feared Dead, Many
Injured
Bandits terrorizing communities
in Niger State weekend opened fire on themselves, leaving 12 dead in Shiroro
Local Government Area.
Beside those killed, several
others suffered various degrees of injuries but managed to escape the battle
ground.
This scenario which happened last
Friday in the community, led to the disappearance of some other bandits from
the area.
It was learned from an impeccable
source in the village that there was a sharp disagreement between the leader of
the gang and his boys over ransom paid to them earlier.
The leader, popularly called
Mallam Dogogide, had accused his boys of short-changing him after their
previous operations.
Dogogide is said to be one of the
leaders of the three notorious bandits’ gangs operating within Shiroro, Rafi
and Munya Local Government Areas in Niger and Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State.
It was also gathered that
Dogogide had frowned at the laid down operational rules by killing villagers
indiscriminately and raping married women.
Angered by this, he summoned his
boys for a meeting and threatened to sack them and replace them with new
recruits.
The action, it was gathered, did
not go down well with his boys and this was said to have led to a heated
argument.
It was gathered that in the
process, one of his boys attempted to kill him when he opened fire but his boss
deflected the bullet.
Loyalists of the leader who were
angered by the disloyalty to Dogogide fought back in defence of their leader,
opened fire and gunned down 12 of the disgruntled ones, while others escaped.
The source further revealed that
some of the bandits later stormed the village after the “battle” and abducted
ten men to help bury the dead bodies.
The ten abductees were, however,
released after the burial as the bandits fled the community.
Some of the villagers are said to
have fled the area out of fear that the bandits might later invade their
community and kill them.
