A combined team of soldiers and police in Kontagora Local Government of Niger have killed at least 7 bandits involved in the murder of Prince Bashir Namaska.
Recall that the bandits invaded the farm of the Emir of Kontagora at Masuga village and killed his son Bashir.
Bashir was the Sardauna of Kontagora and had been standing in for his sick father and the Sarkin Sudan, Alhaji Saidu Namaska.
PR Nigeria reports that Lt. Colonel T.O. Olukukun, the Commanding Officer of the 311 Artillery Regiment, and Police Commander, Haruna Adamu led their troops from different axis in a coordinated assault.
The troops chased the bandits to a thick forest before they shot and neutralized some of them, while others escaped.
It was gathered that one of the bandits was injured and captured, but not much could be extracted from him before he died, as he could neither speak Hausa nor English, but a foreign dialect of Fulfulde.
The assailants stormed the Emir’s farm through a large expanse of land belonging to the Nigerian Army.
There are reports that the land, yet to be fully utilised by the military, harbours camps of bandits terrorizing Niger.
The bandits were discovered to have established their camps at Matan Kari, Fagai, Ozowo, Bihima and Kan Libo.
The hideouts are mountainous areas where they first gather abducted persons, before moving them to Kaduna, Zamfara and the other Northern States, via the forests.
The locations are also used to keep herds of rustled cattle, before moving them across the borders.
A source said “The ‘flat and levelled surfaces’ on top of the mountains is where a yet-to-be-identified private helicopter is often sighted by local people.
“The Army land starts from the military barrack in Kontagora town and extends to the Mai Guge community, in Mariga Local Government. It is almost 40km in length”, the source said.
Another officer identified the porous land as the reason why more than 500 bandits have been having a field day invading communities and wreaking havoc, across parts of Niger East.
