…As bandits kill 4 captives
Pioneer ruler of Dnata chiefdom located in Tafa town, along the Abuja-Kaduna highway, Chief Bitrus James, has lamented that bandits have sacked territorial communities under his rulership.
James, who disclosed this during an interview with newsmen, cried out that the activities of bandits have restrained his subjects from farming.
The monarch’s community was carved out of Kagarko by the immediate-past Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufa’i, in 2022. He cited six communities – Gadunda, Kwakulu, Jida, Isa, Kuyeri and Mpape that are currently sacked by bandits.
The chief said bandits ravaged Gadunda on December 2, 2023 and ordered villagers to leave and only to return if they paid N10 million, adding that some herders close to the hamlet who had initially ignored the order had to flee the community when the bandits started slaughtering their chickens and other animals for consumption. He further said that the assailants also forced the wives of the villagers to cook food for them, after raping them.
Aside from Gadunda, the other five communities experienced the same criminal activities perpetrated by the bandits as about 300 to 500 kidnappers were running various camps in the areas.
He said from December 24 till date, bandits had carried out several operations, moving from one community to another and abducting their victims at will.
“They first went to Gami village and abducted some residents, then Tafa-Pai, Tafa-Gari, as well as Pariga, where they killed three people and abducted 10 others. They also killed three people in Mpape, a village under Kagarko Local Government Area, not that of the FCT”, James stated.
According to him, N10 million ransom was paid in the case of one of the villages named Parigy, only for the kidnappers to kill one of the victims and place another N10 million demand as a new condition to release the remaining 10 victims.
He said that in the case of Mpape, the ransom was paid, but that the bandits still demanded six special motorcycles, each costing N1.5 million. He added that the latest incident took place in Jidna in the early hours of Friday, where seven residents were kidnapped.
The monarch said the bandits seemed to operate in synergy with their counterparts around forests in the FCT, Niger, Kaduna and Nasarawa States, swapping their victims in different directions in order to make them feel that they had been taken away to far destinations.
“We need a similar synergy among our neighbouring states to achieve a desired goal. I have earmarked 100 hectares of land within my domain and urged the Chief of Defence Staff to use it for military barracks,” he stated. “This is a very strategic location next to Abuja. We hope that our governor, Senator Uba Sani, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Chief of Defence Staff will come together to achieve this”.
Meanwhile, there was pandemonium in Dnata chiefdom yesterday morning, following the execution of four captives by kidnappers within the community. A community leader in the area, John Alpha Dogo, told newsmen that the incident took place about 11 pm on Friday, when gunshots were heard around the location, but mistaken as that of the security patrol team.
He added that the bandits dragged their four captives, three females and one male to a location around a former military checkpoint behind Idah junction on Bwari-Jere SCC road and executed them. The bandits are suspected to have brought out the victims from their camp around the axis, over a failed ransom negotiation, according to one of the residents.
According to him, residents of Bagye and Pashin villages in the chiefdom were leaving in droves toward Bwari town following the incident. The chief of Dnata also confirmed the incident.
It was learnt that the Police from Tafa Division had taken the remains of the victims to a hospital around the community.
