By ODITA SUNDAY, Abuja and RAUF OYEWOLE, Bauchi

· Kidnappers kill 40-year-old man during abduction in Bauchi

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has denied claims that its fighter jet bombed and killed a woman and her four children during strikes against armed bandits’ camps and hideouts at Sububu, Zamfara State.

Air Force Director of Public Relations and Information (DOPRI), Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, while faulting the report, said such could happen only if those alleged to have been killed were residing with the bandits in the forest.

According to Gabkwet: “I feel it is important I address this report. I just got off the phone with Alhaji Mohammad Ibrahim, the Director of Security, Ministry of Internal Security, Zamfara State who confirmed the happiness of the state government over the precise nature of the strike by NAF jet.

“On the issue of accidental killing, I find it hard to believe except if those accidentally killed were residing in the forest. I can only continue to probe further.”

A national daily (not The Guardian) had alleged that the victim and her four children were killed by fighter jet targeting bandits during the Zamfara airstrikes.

IN another development, a kidnap victim, Tasiu Abdulkareem Tilde, was brutally killed at the point of abduction on Tuesday by gunmen.

The 40-year-old businessman from Toro Local Council of Bauchi State was said to have been shot by the abductors. The attempted kidnap, according to the locals, happened at Tilden Fulani village, 100 kilometres away from Bauchi close to Jos.

The late Abdulkareem, popularly called ‘Mai Kemisi’, was attacked by the gunmen while in his patent medicine store in Tilden Fulani.

The gunmen entered the area shooting sporadically to scare people away as they attempted to carry out the attack. It was in the process that the late Tasiu was shot and killed while the gunmen ran away having missed their kidnap target.

Police Public Relations Officer, SP Ahmed Wakil, who confirmed the incident, said it happened on Tuesday evening when the gunmen stormed the village shooting indiscriminately to scare people away.

Another attempt was made in another area, Tudun Danbiram, in the same Tilden Fulani when gunmen at about 1:00 a.m. forced themselves into somebody’s compound trying to gain entrance into the main room. (Text excluding headline from The Guardian)

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