District head, four others abducted in Zamfara

The police in Zamfara on Sunday announced the abduction of the district head of Lingyado and four other residents of Maru Local Government Area of the state.

The police spokesperson in the state, Muhammad Shehu, in a statement, said the incident happened at about 8 a.m. when suspected bandits attacked the community and took away the victims.

He said joint police and military units stationed at Bindin responded to distress calls by residents when the gunmen invaded the community.

Mr Shehu said the prompt response of the security personnel thwarted the plan of the bandits to kidnap as many people as possible.

The police did not name any of the victims but residents of the area named the district head as Dalha Danjago.

The state government had stationed 80 officers from the mobile police unit, Nigerian army and Civil Defence to areas in the state vulnerable to attacks by bandits.

“Currently, the police search and rescue team in collaboration with the military are in the nearby forest to rescue the district head and the four other kidnapped victims.

The command is calling on the good people of the state to report any threat of any kind to the security agencies for early response,” the police spokesperson said.

Zamfara is one of the North-west states most affected by the activities of bandits who have killed hundreds of people in the past few years and also kidnapped many others.