Community members of Matusgi village in Talata Mafara local government area of Zamfara State, on Wednesday, foiled an attack by armed bandits who stormed the community to kidnap residents and rustle cattle.
The armed bandits in their large numbers, faced stiff opposition from the villagers who were earlier informed about the invasion, as they came out en masse with local weapons, including fabricated guns against the bandits.
According to one of the villagers, identified as Usman Matusgi, unlike previous bandits’ operation, when everybody would be running for safety, this time, the bandits had unexpectedly received fire power from the villagers, from various angles saying that the situation forced the bandits to retreat.
“The bandits, while struggling to escape into a nearby forest, returned fire on the locals during which three people were killed.
“We killed over 30 of them and many were injured before they retreated; they were faced with the locally-made ammunition that were fired by the ambushing locals in defense of the community”, he added.
According to him, many villages would borrow a leaf from them and banditry activities would gradually come to an end in the state.
“The community members should assist the military and security operatives by engaging the terrorists in operation fire for fire.
“They are human beings like us and we should not leave everything about security only in the hands of the security operatives,” he stated.