Gunmen attack Birnin Gwari, kill 1, kidnap another

Police in Kaduna State have confirmed the death of one person, following the abduction of one man in Birnin Gwari, Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The police in Kaduna said the identity of the man abducted at a Fuel Station at Doka village near Birnin Gwari on Wednesday was yet to be ascertained.

However, people have expressed fears in Birnin Gwari that the Head Teacher of Dangamji Primary School, AbdulHafiz Abdullahi, may have been abducted.

Kaduna Police Command spokesman, DSP Yakubu Sabo, said gunmen attacked the Fuel Station at Doka around 11: 30 am on Wednesday and started shooting, killing one man identified as Bashir Tanimu, while another identified as Babangida was wounded.

Sabo, who appealed to people to verify information before spreading it because of its security implication, said the police force was committed to ensuring a crime free state which he said can only be achieved through community cooperation.

Our correspondent learnt from residents that the Birnin Gwari axis, which had serious security challenges which later subsided, had been bedevilled by resurgence of banditry in the last three weeks.

One of the drivers plying the route told our correspondent that armed men shot at vehicles going to Birmin Gwari on Monday around 12: 00 noon, saying that he narrowly escaped being caught.

“Before we got there, another vehicle had been stopped and some of the passengers abducted. But in our own case, we did not stop,”he said.

Chairman, Birnin-Gwari Vanguards for Security and Good Governance, Ibrahim Abubakar Nagwari, disclosed the Wednesday attack to newsmen in Kaduna.

Nagwari said, in the last three weeks, armed bandits had launched attacks on civilians and motorists across the length and breath of Birnin-Gwari LGA.

He said, on a daily basis, the armed bandits carried out their nefarious act along Birnin GwariKaduna highway during the day as the strategic Birnin-Gwari-Funtua road had been deserted, while the entire Eastern part of Birnin-Gwari neighboring Zamfara and Katsina States is now surrounded by armed bandits.

“Earlier on Wednesday morning around 8.30am, heavily armed bandits, opened fire on vehicles around Polwaya and abducted a bread vendor, about 10 kilometers from Birnin Gwari.

He said the armed bandits struck on Wednesday near Gayam village, wounded three vigilantes and abducted people from vehicles.

The chairman, who said group appreciated previous efforts by the security personnel against armed banditry in Birnin-Gwari, called on Governor Nasiru ElRufa’i to intervene.