There are indications that the ongoing fight against gunmen suspected to be bandits by Joint Security Taskforce in Niger State by both Police and the state government have begun to yield fruitful dividends with the killings of scores of bandits in Basa community in Shiroro Local Government Area of the state in the early hours of last Thursday.
Tribune Online investigations gathered that the exact numbers of the bandits that were neutralized in the operation could not be ascertained as of the time of filing this report, yesterday in Minna, the state capital.
Sources close to the community informed Tribune Online that no fewer than about 15 motorcycles were recovered from the hoodlums by the Taskforce.
The very reliable sources who pleaded for anonymity in an interview with this reporter by telephone noted that several numbers of sophisticated weapons were also recovered from the bandits, while others include food items that the bandits had earlier boggled from the community and taken away to their hideouts in the forests.
Further checks revealed that the bandits had laid siege on Basa community in Shiroro local government area of the state last Wednesday in the afternoon where they were said to have looted shops and residential houses, and carted away food items but did not kill nor abduct anyone.
But it was further learnt that when the Joint Taskforce security personnel received a distress call from some concerned members of the public, the Joint Security Taskforce operatives comprising of the Police, Civil Defence personnel, and local vigilantes stormed Basa community and were told that the bandits had escaped to Magami, a neighbouring community.
The Taskforce operatives continued further with their mission and gave the bandits a hot pursuit to Magami where they (bandits) were allegedly waiting to cross the river, and they engaged in a fierce gun shots duel that the community members stated had lasted for several hours, leading to heavy casualties on the side of the bandits following the superior firepower of the Joint Taskforce members.
A source told our reporter that the lifeless bodies of the bandits who were allegedly killed were said to have been left for the community to find solution to them, while the Taskforce returned to their base in Erena community, in Shiroro local government area of the state, thereby throwing the entire community residents in jubilation mood.
Recalled that in a similar operation some three earlier, no fewer than 15 bandits met their waterloo in the hands of the joint security Taskforce in Iburo, within the same Shiroro local government area of the state.
About 12 operational motorcycles belonging to the armed bandits were also said to have been recovered from deceased bandits in that operation.
Concerted efforts to speak with the Police Public Relations Officer of the State Police Command, DSP Wasiu Abiodun on the incidents was not successful while there was no response to the text messages sent to his telephone line to confirm the incident at the weekend too.
However, the current onslaught on the bandits in the embattled Shiroro Local Government Area of the state was said to be as a result of the recent declaration of total war against armed banditry in Niger State by the incumbent Commissioner of Police, Niger State Command Mr. Monday Bala Kuryas, who was said to have embarked on familiarization visit and the spot assessment of police special camps across the state, shortly after he resumes office recently at the state Police Command Headquarters in Minna.
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