Bandits Kill Three, Abduct One as Insecurity Spreads to Kano

Notorious leader, gang members shot dead in Kaduna

Bandits have killed three people and abducted one in Kano State, fuelling concerns that insecurity has spread to the peaceful city.

The state police command confirmed that gunmen stormed Rurum village in Rano Local Government Area of the state and abducted the mother of a businessman, Alhaji Yusuf Jibrin, but was silent on the killing of the three people.

It was, however, a relief for the people of Kaduna State as a notorious leader of bandits, Rufai Maikaji, alongside dozens of his fighters who were terrorising some communities in the state, have been killed by security forces.

The spokesman of the police in Kano, Mr. Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, said yesterday that the gunmen abducted two people but the police rescued one and were in the process of recovering the other.

Haruna, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), declined to give details of casualties.

But the residents confirmed that the gunmen opened fire, which resulted in the killing of the three persons.

The gunmen also abducted Alhaji Yusuf Jibrin and his wife, Hajiya Asabe Jibrin, but they later released the husband.

An eyewitness also said his brother who was shot later died at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, while the remaining victims, including an old man who escaped from the kidnappers, were receiving treatment.

He added that the security agencies didn’t arrive at the scene until after the bandits had finished the operation.

Meanwhile, a notorious leader of bandits, Rufai Maikaji, alongside dozens of his fighters who were terrorising some communities in Kaduna State, have been killed.

The Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affair, Mr. Samuel Aruwan, in a statement yesterday in Kaduna, said security agencies, acting on intelligence, hunted down the leader of the bandits who commanded over 100 fighters.

He said Maikaji and his gang members were responsible for attacks on communities in Giwa, Igabi and Chikun LGAs of the state.

“After painstaking checks with security agencies and careful exploitation of numerous human intelligence sources, the Kaduna State Government can authoritatively confirm that one ‘Rufai Maikaji,’ a deadly bandit who commanded over 100 fighters, has been neutralised”, Aruwan said.

The statement added that Maikaji and dozens of his fighters were killed during air interdictions around the fringes of Malul Forest in Igabi LGA of the state.

He said the aerial missions in which Maikaji and his gang were neutralised were conducted late February when the gang leader and members of his group, on sighting ground troops, escaped from Anaba village, Igabi LGA where they had killed some people, kidnapped others and burnt houses.

“The prompt response by the air platforms ended the reign of terror maintained by ‘Rufai Maikaji’ and his bloodsucking accomplices,” Aruwan added.

He stated that Maikaji and his group were confirmed to be responsible for the killings, kidnappings and cattle rustlings in many communities in Giwa, Igabi and Chikun LGAs, especially in the following locations: Iyatawa, Garke, Kumfa, Bakali, Karau-karau and Galadimawa, Anaba, Kerawa, Hashimawa, Sabon Birni, Buruku general area and parts of Chikun LGA axis of Kaduna-Birnin Gwari road.

He said the late bandits’ leader began his career as an errand boy to some deadly bandits in and around Sabon Birni in Igabi LGA.

From this position, he grew to become a household name in banditry, the statement said.

The commissioner said the state government and security agencies had assured residents of communities that suffered the brutality of Maikaji that other members of the gang and their accomplices who escaped were being pursued.