TheCable

Yet to be identified gunmen have abducted seven persons, including a three-month-old baby at Kanoma village in Maru local government area of Zamfara state.

According to NAN, the mother of the infant was also kidnapped while two people were killed during the attack.

Ibrahim Muhammed, a resident, was quoted as saying suspected bandits in their hundreds besieged the area around 3am on Tuesday.

Muhammed said the attackers fired gunshots sporadically to scare the residents away.

“It was while they were scaring the people with gun shots that they killed the two victims who came out in the confusion,” he said.

“We tried to raise alarm to security agencies who were stationed in different places along Sokoto/Gusau road, but everyone was afraid of being sighted by the assailants who held powerful fire arms.”

He said the gunmen went to the residence of one Dan Haja, a business man, beat him with iron rods and inflicted serious injuries on him after which they went away with his wife, who is a nursing mother, and her three-month-old baby.

He also said the bandits moved to the house of  Sani Abdullahi, a former government official, and picked him too along with six other persons and disappeared.

“At a later time, they called to demand for a ransom of 50 million naira for the release of those abductees,” Muhammad said.

When contacted, Mohammed Shehu, spokesman of the state police command, confirmed the attack but said, “from the report we received, no one was killed and a total of eight persons mostly women and children were abducted by the attackers.”

He said, the command’s tactical and anti-terrorism units had been deployed in the area to trail the bandits, adding that peace had been restored to the area.

He urged members of the public to always report such attacks or suspicious movements in good time so that assistance could come.