BREAKING: Gunmen storm Sokoto community, kill 5 security guards, others

Gunmen suspected to be bandits attacked Karfen Sarki Village in Gudu Local Government Area, killing five members of the newly established state community guards and two peasant farmers.

The attack was confirmed by Hon. Umar Maikano Balle, the sole administrator of the council area.

He stated that the victims were ambushed while patrolling and trailing the movements of bandits who had reportedly set up a camp nearby.

The attack occurred on Tuesday, approximately 28 kilometers south of the council’s headquarters in Balle.

“The galant efforts of our community guards have curtailed gunmen’s periodic attacks for long, not until now, when they take the guards unaware, killing five of their members.

The suspected gunmen sometime in 2019 gruesomely slaughtered the District of Balle (Magajin Farin Balle) Alhaji Ibrahim Aliyu after an alleged misunderstanding between his brother and the suspected group.

The seven victims of the attack have since been buried according to Islamic injunctions.

Gudu local government is one of the 13 council areas of Sokoto State where bandits and other criminal gangs are carrying out their nefarious atrocities, sometimes in broad daylight.

It is believed that the proximity of the area to neighbouring Niger Republic makes it prone to cattle rustling and bandit cross border attacks.

It was the same area where Malian Jihadist Lakuruje took control in 2020, imposing taxes and levies on rural communities with strict adherence to Sharia Islamic legal system.

It took the concerted efforts of the military, police, and DSS to dislodge the group from the forest in Gudu.

According to reports at that time, the Jihadists were invited by the Fulani communities in the area for their defence against increased cattle rustling and banditry in their enclaves.

After dislodging and chasing away bandits from the forest, the Jihadists turned the area into a safe haven and became authorities in their own way.

The former administration of Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal spent over 1.7 billion naira to construct a befitting boarding secondary school in Balle, the headquarters of Gudu local government. The school has since become a ghost after completion due to activities of gunmen.

Gudu is the only local government amongst 774 council areas of the federation still standing without a functional boarding secondary school, and all efforts to provide one prove impossible as a result of one factor or another, especially cross-border crimes.