In what was a major onslaught against bandits terrorising Katsina and other North West states, the Nigeria Army has killed two bandits and rescued 10 kidnapped victims.
The army under “Operation Sahel Sanity’’ on Monday arrested 13 notorious bandits and recovered from them one AK47 rifles, one Dane gun among other dangerous weapons.
Acting Director, Defence Media Operations, Nigerian Army, Brigadier- General Bernard Onyeuko in a statement in Katsina, said: ‘’The Nigerian Army’s quest to eliminate banditry and other nefarious activities afflicting the North-West region was yielding tremendous successes.
“On 28 August 2020, troops conducted a raid operation at some identified bandits’ hideouts at Gamji Village and during the operation, 6 suspects were apprehended while troops recovered 1 Dane Gun, 1 Motorcycle and 2 cutlasses from the suspects.
“Same day, troops deployed at Zakka acting on credible intelligence arrested 3 suspected armed bandits namely Sagar Garba, Hafisu Mato and Suleiman Sada. Suspects were identified by locals to be members of a syndicate terrorizing the general area,” Onyeuko stated.
The Defense spokesman further stated after preliminary investigations the suspects confessed to their involvements in cattle rustling at Kwaya, Sabon Birni and Baure villages of Sokoto and Zamfara states.
He assured the arrested suspects were undergoing investigations while efforts were ongoing to apprehend other criminals launching deadly attacks on communities within the affected areas.