Kaduna: Bandits kidnap Customs officer, son, nine others in Zaria

Bandits stormed Kofar Gayan low-cost estate, Zaria, Kaduna, on Wednesday night and kidnapped a Customs officer, Muawiyya Gambo Turaki, and nine others.

Speaking to DAILY POST in Kaduna on Thursday, a resident in the community, Alhaji Shehu Usman, said all of a sudden, he heard sporadic shooting, and had to lie down in the mosque where he went to pray.

According to him, the bandits who came around 9.00pm, were shooting indiscriminately to scare people away.

This is the second time bandits would invade Kofar Gayan and abduct people.

He said the bandits had invaded the neighborhood last year, abducted the wife of a Customs officer and a woman but released them after N15 million ransom was paid.

The ward head of the area, Muhammadu Nazifi, who confirmed the incident to DAILY POST on Thursday, said the bandits kidnapped Turaki and his son, Jamalu Muawiyya

He said, “They also kidnapped a woman, Jamila Usman and another boy also called Khalifah.

“However, about four of them later escaped and returned.”

Also speaking, one of the escapees, Yushau Isah, said about four of them escaped miraculously after trekking with the bandits for about five kilometers into the bush.

He narrated, “The abductors were eight in number and came on foot with sophisticated weapons. They struggled to speak Hausa language to us but their language of communication is Fulani.”

Isah said they managed to escape under the cover of the night.

“We attributed the abduction to the handiwork of informants because it seems their main target was the customs officer who arrived home from his duty post, just a day earlier,” he said.

Bandits have been on the increase in Kaduna State since two weeks as no day passes without reports of bandits attack.