‎Nigerian Military Foils Bandits Attempt to Cross Kontagora Highway to Attack on Niger Communities

By YM Bina

‎There has been Confusion as bandits in their numbers attempted to cross Minna- Kontagora highway around Tegina-Yakila under Rafi local government area of Niger state.

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‎It was reliably gathered that the incident occurred on Monday around ten to eleven o’clock in the morning, when several vehicles had to pack at Tegina and others at Yakila to avoid running into the bandits while crossing the road.

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‎An eyewitness Malam Nasiru Mustapha made this known to our reporter in Minna, however lamented that it was a sympathetic situation seeing many number of children and women including elderly people trooping in to Tegina town, Yakila and Garin-Gabas villages along the highway from the neighbouring villages for safety.

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‎He noted that all vehicles coming from Kontagora axis had to stop at Tegina town and those coming from the opposite direction from Minna also had to stop at Yakila village within the period until three military vehicles led the packed  stranded ones to pass through the alleged route.

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‎Sources further revealed that soldiers have gone into the bush and forest around the area to comb their hideouts and counter the dreaded criminals.

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‎A community source informed that seventeen bandits motorcycles were sighted carrying two to three passengers with sophisticated weapons carryout surveillance to cross the highway while some waiting for clearance for movement across to Wushishi and Mashegu local government areas.

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‎Sighting them led to the running of the people in the interland villages for safety to the other towns along the expressway.

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‎It was also gathered that the military and other security operatives were immediately deployed to the areas to provide security and maintain peace to the communities within the affected area.

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There are no official statements from the relevant authorities on the development at the time of filing this report.