Gunmen kill woman, injure others in Taraba, abduct nursing mother in Kaduna

A few days after the gruesome killing of a secondary school principal in Tsukundi village of Wukari Council, Taraba State, by armed militia came a report that unknown gunmen have killed a woman in the council.

The woman, whose name could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report, was said to have been killed yesterday at Tor-Musa village while riding on a motorcycle from the neighbouring Donga Council to Wukari.

Confirming the report, the Wukari council caretaker chairman, Adi Daniel, explained that suspected members of a militia group ambushed the lady and the motorcyclist along the road. The motorcyclist was said to have escaped, but the woman could not.

However, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), David Misal, said the matter was yet to get to his desk.

Similarly, gunmen abducted no fewer than six persons, including a nursing mother and her three-week-old baby, on Tuesday night at Hayin Danmani County in Igabi Council of Kaduna State.

The Guardian gathered that the kidnappers contacted the family of one of the victims and demanded N10 million.

When contacted on phone to confirm the incident the PPRO of Kaduna State Police Command, DSP Yakubu Sabo, promised to get back to our reporter.

A source said under anonymity that the gunmen, after infiltrating the community, started shooting sporadically into the air and went from house-to-house to pick their victims.

But the police command has reportedly recovered 273 animals rustled in Kajuru Council and arrested seven suspects.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Department of Finance and Administration, Onah Ambrose, stated that the feat was achieved through community policing.

He, however, called on the general public to rededicate themselves to civic responsibility in assisting the police with timely and reliable information to improve security in the communities.

President Muhammadu Buhari has called on security agencies and communities under threat of banditry to be more vigilant in the light of the latest incidents in Enugu, Zamfara, Adamawa, Katsina and Kaduna states.

Reacting to the recent reports of heightened acts of violence and kidnapping after a period of relative inactivity, the president observed, “In view of the unpredictability of the security situation, our security forces and the communities affected should be more alert because these murderous and remorseless criminals would take advantage of your complacency and strike again.

“The bandits should, under no circumstance, be allowed to hold the country to ransom on account of security loopholes which they seek to exploit to strike.”

Meanwhile, Nigeria has been ranked, for the fifth consecutive time, as the third most terrorised country globally.

The recent report released on Wednesday by Global Terrorism Index (GTI) also revealed that attacks from herders killed more Nigerians in 2018, compared to the number of deaths caused by Boko Haram.

GTI, which is in its seventh edition, is produced annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank with offices in Sydney, New York, and Mexico City.

It monitors and measures the impact of terrorism in 163 countries, which covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population and uses a total number of terrorist incidents, fatalities caused by terrorists, injuries caused by terrorists and total property damage from terrorist incidents in a given year to arrive at its ranking.