Bandits kill Madaka Village Head in Niger for failure to pay N800,000 ransom, abduct District Head of Gunna

Bandits at the weekend killed the Head of Madaka Village, Zakari Ya’u Idris, in Rafi Local Government Area, Niger State after failure to pay N800,000 ransom demanded by the kidnappers. It was gathered that the bandits killed the Madaka Village Head, Ya’u Idris, after one week of being kidnapped from the community when the bandits struck in Madaka Village last Sunday. The armed bandits   were said to have killed three people when they struck in Madaka, thereafter, kidnapped the village head for a second time.

The Chief of Staff to the Chairman of Rafi Local Government Area, Mohammed Mohammed, was gathered to have acknowledged the killing of the Madaka Village Head by the bandits. The Chief of Staff to the LG Chairman had further disclosed that the bandits contacted the family of the Village Head to pay N800,000 ransom before he was killed.

Mohammed was said to have further disclosed that the bandits freed five members of the community on the payment of ransom; the freed victims were said to have confirmed that the bandits killed the Madaka Village Head.

He decried that the released victims revealed that that the Village Head was killed after going through torture in the hands of the bandits, who were said to always beat the grassroots traditional ruler.

The released victims were said to have further said that the bandits buried the remains of the Madaka Village Head, Zakari Idris, in the bush without the usual rituals.

The bandits had kidnapped the Madaka Village Head for a second time after about one month he was previously kidnapped and set free. The bandits had held the grassroots traditional ruler for three months in the first kidnap before his freedom. The Village Head of Madaka was not lucky in the second kidnap.

In the raid of the Madaka community, the three people identified to have been killed by the bandits included a leader of the vigilante group, Isyaku Alhassan, his son, Abdulhamid, and one other person.

Several indigenes were said to have been injured during the invasion, and many houses burnt.

It was fathered that Mohammed revealed that the bandits had a hideout camp in a village adjacent to Madaka.

In another violent operation, bandits kidnapped the District Head of Gunna in Yakila in the same Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State. The bandits are yet to release the District Head as at last weekend.

Mohammed was said to have revealed that the bandits are yet to contact the family of the District Head on amount of ransom to pay.

Bandits were said to have slaughtered about 50 persons in renewed raid of communities in Niger State.

Over 10 people were identified to have been killed in Rafi Local Government Area by bandits in the past one week, while the bandits successfully kidnapped about 33 indigenes.

Several indigenes in their thousands were said to have abandoned their ancestral homes and taking refuge at temporary Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps made available by the Niger State government.

The state government, as in other northern states, have lost control of the security situation in its jurisdiction while the federal government appears to have become incompetent in handling the ravaging insecurity and bandits rampage in the north.