By Suleiman Umaru
This is not the best of times for residents of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT and the boundary farming communities of Niger, home state of Ibrahim Babangida, a retired Army General and former military President. Members of the Bandits Group appears to have penetrated the city through Rafin Daji, a border Community between the FCT and the north central state to carry out their nefarious activities.
Bala Mohammed, District Head of Gurdi Ward, in the FCT, had said that that the situation is so bad, urging Usman Alkali Baba, the Inspector General of Police, IGP and Farouk Yahaya, a Lt. General and Chief of Army Staff, CoAS, to intervene by deploying more security operatives to the FCT, to deal decisively with the situation before it gets worse compared to what is happening currently in Zamfara, Sokoto, Kaduna and Katsina.
The Bandits attack in the Rafin Daji boundary may have hit the news headlines in major Newspapers, across the country and became a subject of discussions in the Social Media, on Thursday, June 24, 2022, when the armed Bandits were said to have kidnapped 22 farmers and burnt two tractors belonging to the owner of the Farm, who according to informed sources was not resident in the Community but in the FCT.
An eyewitness account said the gunmen had shot sporadically into the air when they entered the community too scare the people away to avoid calling in the police for reinforcement. Engineer Ibrahim Barder, the owner of the large commercial farm had said that hisyounger brothers and their families, were among those fell into the waiting hands of the Bandits.
Given an insider information, he disclosed that they had barely finished their work, preparatory to return home when the Bandits attacked in their usual Commando style. He disclosed that the Killer gang has contacted the family but have not made their financial demands to facilitate the release of the victims.
Oduniyi Omotayo, the FCT, Police Command, acting spokesperson , who confirmed the andits raid on the Rafin Daji, a basically farming Community, had said that the police Authorities are leaving no stone unturned to bring the culprits to book. The FCT Police spokesperson averred that the gunmen, as they are popularly called in some quarters may have succeeded in attacking the Community at the time and getting away with the 22 persons because ‘’the farmers were cultivating in their farm land’’.
As a prelude to getting the Bandits from their forest hideout, he disclosed that a combined Team of security operatives have been deployed to the Rafin Daji Community and are ‘’combining aggressively for traces of the adbuctors to get them as directed by Babaji Sunday the FCT, Commissioner of Police, who is acting on the instruction of the IGP and rescue the victims.
An Inter-city commercial bus driver told The Value News that ever since the news broke out about the Bandits infilteration of Rafin Daji, a boundary community with Niger state, security has been beefed up in the Nigerian Capital city to forestall any future attack. The driver had warned the bandits not to think that by entering the FCT environ to kidnap 22 farmers, the road has been opened for them to enter Abuja and carry out their nefarious activities as they are doing in Communities Niger, Zamfara, Sokototo, Kaduna and Katsina, noting that they have reached their dead end.
While fierce-looking security operatives are positioned at strategic locations in the FCT and its environs to forestall the Bandits who had kidnapped 22 farmers at Rafin Daji, a police team in a counter-attack with he Bandits in Giwa local government Area of Kaduna had killed one of them, forcing others to take to their heels and escape into the forest, amidst hot chase, leading to the recovery of an AK-49 rifle and locally made long-range revolver with 12 Cateridges as well a motorcycle used by the Bandits for their attacks in targeted communities.
With the mandate given to the police Commissioners in the flashpoint states not to give a breather to the Bandits until they are completely flushed out from the Nigerian space, Yekini Ayoku, the Kaduna state Commissioner of police was said to have asked the various police teams in the state ‘’to sustain the recent gains made in the state’’, stressing that ‘’victory is nearby where criminality would be a thing of the past in the state and the country in general’’.
The Commander of the police team that led the Giwa operations was said to have reassured the residents of the flashpoint local government areas in the state that ‘’efforts are currently being made towards restoring public confidence with rigorous patrol and surveillance of the various local government areas in in the state in order to prevent further attack on Communities or commuter buses , particular, the Abuja –Kaduna highway.
