Gunmen believed to be bandits have killed nine members of the local vigilante group in Burra Forest, Ningi Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
The vigilantes were reportedly in the trail of the bandits in their hideouts when they got killed.
When contacted, Yahaya Shuaibu, the Public Relations Officer of one of the local security groups called ‘Yan Ba Beli’ whose member was also killed in the incident, confirmed the news to Channels Television on Monday.
“Out of the nine people who were killed, only one of them is our member. The rest belong to another local security team known as ‘Yan Vigilante’.
“We normally carry out combined activities to flush out bandits from the forest and the operation has been ongoing for weeks,” he said.
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Shuaibu also confirmed that the incident happened on Sunday evening and according to the information they received, their men succeeded in capturing some of the bandits in their hideouts, in a mountainous area of Gamji village but, before they could leave, other bandits came after them and opened fire.
Similarly, a Civil Defence officer has been reportedly killed at a checkpoint in the Ningi Local Government Area. He was said to be carrying out a routine checkpoint duty last night and excused himself to a nearby bush to urinate when the gunmen struck and killed him and then left with his gun.
Recently, the members of the vigilante gained popularity for carrying out assaults on bandits in collaboration with conventional security operatives.
The Police Public Relations Officer did not respond to calls and he is yet to issue a statement.
