Bandits kills village head, 20 others in Niger community

From Yakubu Mustapha, Minna

No fewer than 21 persons including a village head were reportedly killed by suspected bandits in Madaka community, in Rafi local government area of Niger state.
It was reliably gathered that the bandit attack occurred around 3 pm on Thursday, when the community market was still open.
Also, the bandit reportedly abducted unidentified numbers of the villagers to an unidentified destination.
According to sources, about 50 houses including commercial shops, a number of cars and motorcycles were burnt down during the incident.
It was gathered that the suspected armed men broke into the village shooting sporadically, killing their victims and burning down the market.
The district head, Alhaji Isah Bawale confirmed the incident to our Correspondent on a telephone interview, in Minna, Niger state capital.
It was further revealed that since the attack on same community some years ago when the district head was killed there were no security presence in that community leading to bandits attack without challenges from any quarters.
When contacted, Niger State Command of Police Public Relations Officer PPRO SP Wasiu Abiodun assured to verify and get back which he couldn’t at the time of filing in the report.
Meanwhile, the Niger state government especially the commissioner for security, General Bello Abdullahi Mohammed (retired) is yet to speak on the incident.