Four individuals were killed and eight others were abducted in Katsina State after bandits with sophisticated weaponry like as AK-47 rifles attacked farms.
The incident occurred in the communities of Nahuta and Dantsuntu in the state’s Batsari Local Government Area.
According to an eyewitness, the bandits surrounded the area on Saturday evening as the farmers were busy working on their farms, shooting intermittently. They were open till the early hours of Sunday morning.
However, the Katsina Police Command spokesman acknowledged the occurrence on Monday.
He noted that police are already on top of the situation as five persons have so far been rescued unhurt out of the eight that were earlier kidnapped.
Batsari is one of the frontline local government areas in Katsina State where banditry is on the increase. The development has made life unbearable with the locals finding it difficult to access their farmlands which remain their only source of livelihood.
Violence in North-West Nigeria has its roots in the conflict between nomadic herders and settled farmers over land and resources, but it has spiralled into wider criminality.
Settlements form self-defence vigilante groups to protect villages and gangs carry out tit-for-tat reprisals on rival communities, often including mass abductions for ransom or leverage.