Nigeria Air Force chopper supplies guns to bandits

As the Nigerian armed forces try to make sense of the Ibi incident where its members killed men of the Nigeria Police Force Aug 6, and freed a kidnap  lynch-pin in Taraba, another revelation has hit the media.

A bandit has described a chopper drops weapons for his gang inside Dinya Forest in Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State.

Aliu Musa, 20, and another suspected bandit Salmanu Isa, 18, were among those paraded for various offences at the Katsina Police Command headquarters by PPRO Anas Gezawa, in Katsina city.

Musa, the National Daily gathered,  said he once saw that aircraft with fans on its head (helicopter) drop weapons for my boss while we were inside forest at Dinja.

“It was hovering and was very near ground. The man inside would drop the weapons for my boss who would now couple the weapons for our use,” he told journalists.

“It is only my boss who would go and pick the weapons while we would be watching from where we stood.”

The Nigeria Air Force controls the nation’s military air space and aircraft.

The bandit said he was paid N17,000 per operation and confessed to killing at least five people during operations.

He listed Sirajo and Bishir as their gang leaders.

Gezawa, before parading the suspects, said Musa’s gang had killed no fewer than 25 people in different operations.

He added the suspects confessed that they were bandits that tormented Kankara village and its environs.

“The first suspect Salmanu Isah (a member of the gang) mentioned that they attacked some villages with his syndicate, where they robbed Zango village and went away with eight cows,” Gezawa said.

“He also confessed that he shot dead one person before going to rob at Santa village, where they snatched six sheep and some food items.”

The police spokesman said the bandits also went to Bela and Zango villages where they killed about 20 people and rustled two cows.

Gezawa also said the bandits stormed Omodo village and killed about five people and also rustled eight cows and six sheep.

The police spokesman said there is an ongoing investigation into the case