By Emmanuel Obisue
An attack by armed bandits has left Samaila Muhammad to live the rest of his life without both arms following a bloody invasion of his residence, Walo Community in Kaura Namoda Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
The bandits had come for looting of livestock in the dead of the night of the attack, Abdullahi Mohammed, a relative of the victims narrated.
“My brother, Samaila and I are currently on admission in the hospital because I got a fractured arm and leg too.
“It was around 11: 30 pm when the armed criminals struck. They forced themselves into our residence and began to look for where we have kept our animals. We began to hear noise and we grabbed our torchlight and got out of our rooms to find out what was happening. I saw one of the armed men trying to get control of our chickens and I beamed my torchlight on him.
“He fired a shot in my direction even though the bullet could not hit me. I swiftly moved away from the position I stood. They began to pack chickens and when my brother challenged them, one of them brought out a machete and cut off one his hands and before he made any attempt to escape the attack the armed man cut off the other hand too.
“Our community has suffered series of deadly attacks in the past and we have suffered a lot of humiliations, including rape of women. We are currently responding to treatment and we are getting better after we have spent days in the medical facility,” Mohammed narrated.
The insurgents now designated as terrorists, are responsible for series of attacks in Northern Nigeria, including the adoption of train passengers along the Abuja-Kaduna rail corridor in March, some of whom are still in the custody of the abductors.
Unlike the Boko Haram terrorists who seek to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, no ideology is associated with the bandits who have no central leadership structure.
Several efforts by the security forces to wipe out the bandits have been unsuccessful as they have been largely emboldened by their yet-to-be-identified financial support base.
