By LALEYE DIPO

No fewer than 30 villagers were Monday kidnapped in Kutunku village in Wushishi Local Government Area of Niger State.

A reliable source told THISDAY on telephone that the heavily armed bandits stormed the village on foot and rounded up the villagers.

The bandits were said to have hidden their motorcycles in an orchard close to the village and from there trekked to their target, a development that did not arouse the suspicion of the villagers until it was late.

“They forced them to trek along with them to their camp,” the source said, adding that the bandits are yet to contact families of those kidnapped.

The source said those kidnapped included 20 Gbagyis, made up of 11 men and nine females, nine Fulanis and one person of another tribe.

One of the women abducted, according to the source, is billed to be married this weekend.

A senior local government official in the area said a report was made to the Divisional Police Officer in Zungeru “but we are yet to hear from him”.

All efforts to get police confirmation of the story was abortive.

The Chairman of Rafi Local Government, Alhaji Ismaila Modibo Kagara, when contacted, confirmed the incident but said it happened at Kutunku village in Wushishi Local Government Area, a border town with Kundu in Yakila District of Rafi Local Government.

According to the account of the local government boss, 24 persons were kidnapped at Kutunku village, adding that the names of the victims have not been got.

Modibo said the bandits also went to Adidi village, where they kidnapped one Ibrahim Gamaagi before moving to the next village where they abducted an unspecified number of people.

Last week, 18 persons travelling in three commercial vehicles were waylaid and abducted at Kundu in the same local government area.

Since the abduction of the travellers, nothing has been heard from their kidnappers though it was said that the iIl-fated vehicles in which they were travelling and abandoned by the roadside, have been taken to the Zungeru police station. (THISDAY)

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