In retaliation to the death of some of their members who were gunned down by some vigilantes, some suspected armed bandits in a reprisal attack, reportedly stormed Saminaka, a village located along Bale-Tangaza road on Sunday evening killing six people.
According to a reliable source, those killed in the attacks included children who were slaughtered as well as housewives who were shot while trying to run away.
The source said, “I am with the corpses as I am talking to you now, they slaughtered the children like goats while the women were shot as they tried to escape from the bandits. The local vigilante people are on their trail in the bush and we pray they will be captured and dealt with accordingly.”
The spokesman of the Sokoto State Police Command, ASP Sanusi Abubakar, when contacted declined to comment, stating that, he had not been properly briefed on the incident.
The bandits, suspected to be remnants of those under bombardment from Nigerian troops in Zamfara forests invaded Tangaza local government areas of Sokoto state on Friday evening, after Magrib prayers.
They looted shops, houses and carted away with foodstuffs. They also killed two people and abducted some of the villagers.
Angry residents comprising of youths and local vigilante members on Saturday in response to the earlier attack by the bandits mobilized and stormed the bush in pursuant of the bandits.
A source who spoke with our correspondent from the local government confirmed that the search team apprehended sixteen suspects, ten in Tangaza town while six were apprehended in Gidan Maadi.
“The suspects were initially handed over to the police but, when the news of the arrest filtered into the town, members of the said communities demanded that they should be immediately killed by the police.
“When all efforts to convince the police to kill them was unsuccessful, residents overpowered the police in their station, seized the suspects and killed them all,” the source said.
