Cattle rustlers kill 6, herd off 700 head of cattle in Niger

Some gun men believed to be cattle rustlers invaded Kukoki in the Shiroro LGA of Niger, killing six persons on Wednesday in an hours-long attack on the community, according to Chairman Mark Jagaba.

He said that four Fulanis and two Gbagyis were killed while several women and children were injured.

Jagaba said that members of the community reported that the suspects, numbering about 50 and armed with dangerous weapons, stormed the community at about 7.00 a.m. shooting sporadically.

According to him, the cattle rustlers stole over 700 cattle and undisclosed number of goats and sheep before fleeing the community.

He said the attack came barely three weeks after nine people were killed in a similar incident in Kurebe and Kwaki Chukuba wards of Shiroro Local Government Area.

But normalcy had since returned to the area.

The chairman appealed to security agencies in the state to assist a vigilante group in the area to curtail cattle rustlers and indiscriminate killings of innocent lives.

Confirming the attack, Bala Elkana, the Police Public Relations Officer, said that two suspects had been arrested while efforts were on to apprehend the others.

He said the command was yet to ascertain the actual number of cattle rustled by the attackers, adding that the police had beefed up security within the community and its environs.

The police anti-cattle rustling team is searching the forest through which the invaders escaped