Gunmen suspected to be bandits on Thursday killed no fewer than five residents of Rogoji in Bakura Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
Residents said the bandits carried out the attack to punish them for providing information on the bandits to security agents and vigilantes.
Also, sources said the residents had supported security agents and vigilantes in moving against bandits in Lambar Bakura to Dogon Karfe axis.
Confirming the incident, Hamza Abdullahi, a resident of Bakura town said the bandits struck Thursday morning when residents were preparing for their early morning prayers.
He said despite resistance from vigilantes, the bandits entered the community and killed five people.
Another resident of Rogoji, Bello Mande, said that he escaped on foot to Lambar Bakura before he got a vehicle that took him to Mafara.
He said, “The bandits came on motorcycles around 5 a.m. and started shooting, which alerted the vigilante members in our village. If not because of them, the bandits wanted to ransack the whole community. They killed five men.”
When asked why residents were leaving despite that normalcy had returned to the village, Mande said it was out of fear that the bandits would return.
According to him, “the issue is that some of our people have clue to security agents on the whereabouts of the bandits in the forest and the vigilante members who led the operation were from our village.
“That is why we are praying for the end of informants because it was some informants in our town that told the bandits that we were conniving with the police to track them.
“I personally feel that they will still return because that was their promise. They are angry with us and what we are doing to tackle them.”
He added that those killed were buried Thursday afternoon.