Rampaging bandits have dislodged about 15, 000 inhabitants of eight villages in Sakaba local government area in Zuru emirate of Kebbi state.
Blueprint reliably gathered that bandits took over the villages by using the empty houses as their shelter and feeding on the food left behind by the residents.
The villages under the bandits’ occupation in Makuku chiefdom include Makuku, Doka, Jigawa, Mahuta, Kurmin Hudo, Bien, Sakaba and Maroro.
The Makuku chiefdom located in the southern part of Zuru emirate shared a boundary with Niger state has a forest and hilly nature that serves the bandits as hideout as well access to the neighboring Yauri emirate.
A community, Alhaji Auwal Makuku, said “we have to abandon our houses and seek shelter somewhere for safety. These bandits always terrorise us, rustle our livestock, bugle our shops and ransack houses and cart away every viable item.”
“Life is becoming very unbearable for us here since they don’t allow us to go to our farms neither engage in any business,” he said.
He added that the community had a big market in Makuku that holds every Thursday of the week but that has became history since the bandits have taken over the control of the entire chiefdom.
Alhaji Auwal said “we are still in the IDPs camp in Dirin Daji, but we occasionally pay visits to deserted houses to pick some food items and sneak back, and before we do that we have to climb on top of the hills and monitor their movement”
According to him, some detachment of soldiers have been drafted in Ayyu and Dankolo villages, which has greatly helped in curtailing their wider coverage, otherwise they would have reached Zuru town by now.