AT LEAST 55 persons are said to have been kidnapped by a terrorists gang while escorting a bride along Damari town in Sabuwa Local Government Area of Katsina State.
Although security agencies are yet to confirm the incident officially, a resident however, told News Point Nigeria on Friday in a telephone call that the incident occurred on Thursday at about 9pm.
He noted that three security volunteers however lost their lives in effort to rescue the victims.
“Before the hoodlums attack the victims on a canter vehicle, the victims were initially over 70 mostly friends to the bride in which several others escaped”, he added.
Sabuwa, apart from being an agrarian area, also remains one of the security front line LGAs grappling with the activities of bandits and their collaborators mostly informants to bandits.
In a separate incident around the same time, gunmen reportedly from Siddi forest infiltrated Tashar Nadaya, near the Gazari district border in Sabuwa LGA.
The criminals killed a commercial motorcycle rider, seizing his bike.
They also opened fire on a group of four individuals, confiscating their motorcycles.
Chairman of Dandume Local Government Council, Alhaji Basiru Musa, confirmed the report.
While some unconfirmed reports suggest that a few kidnapped women managed to escape, the chairman promised to verify and provide updates.
He clarified that although the women were from Dandume, the criminals intercepted them on their way from Sabuwa Local Government Area at about 9pm.
Sabuwa and Dandume are among the local government areas being heavily tormented by bandits in Katsina State.
Despite the relentless efforts of the Katsina Security Watch Corps and other security forces, a day hardly goes by without a report of their nefarious activities.