How the latest offensive was launched
It was gathered that Wednesday’s attack commenced at Garki village.
“They surrounded the village before moving in and started shooting, killing people at sight,” one of the locals said.
A former local government chairman in the area, Idris Mohammed, noted that the bandits had been terrorising villages across the local government for quite some time now.
“The recent one in Garki is no different,” he said, and expressed concern that there was no security presence at the time of the attack at Garki village which is 2km from Sabon Birni.
Salisu Gobir, a farmer, said that the attackers were bandits who carried out a series of attacks in Gangara, ‘Yar Bulutu and Garin Bature villages, all around Sabon Birni.
Many of the residents said that the bandits might have ‘migrated’ to Sokoto from Katsina and Zamfara where there are many security operatives carrying out special operation.
“The federal government ought to spread security personnel all over the affected areas,” Abubakar said.
“Government is tackling the problem piecemeal and this will never work, from Katsina and Zamfara, then Kaduna depending on the exigency of the moment. We are sharing border with some of these states yet government is not giving us the desired attention.
“So, the bandits leave those places- Zamfara and Katsina because they are facing a lot of attacks. They know that our side is open, there is no security here, so they move from that side, they take revenge because their people were killed in other states,” he said.