The Bandits in Zamfara State met their Waterloo last Wednesday, as thirty-five of them were reported to have been killed by the two communities, Mutuzgi villagers in the Talata-Mafara local government area and Magami Deddi in the Maradun local government area of the state.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the two communities engaged with the Bandits differently. The first encounter occurred when the Mutuzgi community prepared for the fight after being informed of the bandits’ possible invasion of the village.
A resident of Mutuzgi Ahmed Ya’u, who spoke with our Correspondent, said on hearing of the possible attack, the villagers, both male and female, came out en masse armed with local weapons, including fabricated guns, and confronted the bandits at the spot of their arrival.
According to him, the people of Mutuzgi, because they were so disturbed by frequent attacks by the bandits that were terrorising the community, decided to sacrifice by confronting them and fighting to finish between them.
He said that as the locals gathered, waiting for the bandits at different locations of the village, the bandits, without knowing of the planned community, unexpectedly received fire from various angles, forcing them to retreat from the attacks.
“As I speak, I happen to be among those who fought the Bandits. We overpowered them as we killed twenty of them and lost three persons within our community.
“The bandits, while struggling to escape into a nearby bush, returned fire on us, and that is how three of our people were killed.
“As some of the bandits narrowly escaped the firing villagers, they fled through a route which took them down another Community Magami Deddi and unknown to them, the villagers there also ambushed and opened fire on the bandits where ten more others were killed.
“At the end of the battle, there were already twenty-five bandit’s corpses lying in the blood who had been fatally hit by the unresisting flying locally made ammunition fired by the ambushing community who stand to defend themselves”.
Efforts to meet with Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) ASP Yazid Abubakar were abortive, as he could not be reached when the report was filed.