- It’s gathered that the villagers, who had prior knowledge of the invasion, trooped out en masse with local weapons, including fabricated guns against the bandits.
Over thirty bandits have met their end in the hands of community members at Matusgi village in Talata Mafara local government area of Zamfara State.
The bandits were killed after the locals thwarted their attack on the enclave in the north-west state on Wednesday.
The armed bandits had stormed the community to kidnap residents and rustle cattle but met more than they bargained for as the locals turned up the heat on them, put up stiff resistance and checkmated the assailants.
It’s gathered that the villagers, who had prior knowledge of the invasion, trooped out en masse with local weapons, including fabricated guns against the bandits.
One of the villagers, Usman Matusgi, said unlike previous bandits’ attack, when everybody would be gripped by fear and flee for their lives, this time, the locals stood their ground and fought back.
He said the bandits had unexpectedly received fire power from the villagers, from various angles saying that the situation forced the bandits to retreat.
“The bandits, while struggling to escape into a nearby forest, returned fire on the locals during which three people were killed.
“We killed over 30 of them and many were injured before they retreated; they were faced with the locally-made ammunition that were fired by the ambushing locals in defense of the community”, he added.
According to him, many villages would imitate them and banditry activities would be curbed and soon become a thing of the past in the state.
“The community members should assist the military and security operatives by engaging the terrorists in operation fire for fire.
“They are human beings like us and we should not leave everything about security only in the hands of the security operatives,” he stated.