A political leader and his family were saved from an attempted kidnap attack by bandits at his residence at Mareri village in Gasau, the Zamfara state capital on Saturday night.
Soldiers and vigilantes in the area rescued the family after engaging the bandits in a gun battle.
The politician named Aminu Adamu, who is popularly known as Papa, is the Managing Director of the Zamfara State Transport Authority and a close ally of Governor Bello Matawalle.
A resident of the area, Zayyanu Muhammad, stated that the bandits came on their motorcycles and stormed the Mareri quarters, where AminuAdamu lives with his family.
“Papa was not the target. It was Barrister Hafiz Sufyan that they targeted but he was not at home. It was around 12:30 a.m and even when they went into Papa’s house they kept asking him the whereabouts of his neighbour, Barrister Hafiz Sufyan, but he told them he was not in town. They said they were informed that Barrister was at home.
“They then took him and his family members. By then, people of the area had informed the vigilante members on the main road, who confronted the bandits,” he said.
It was gathered that many bandits were killed, including a woman.
Muhammad added that, “Their corpses are at Federal Medical Centre, Gusau. I saw the dead bodies all of them were young people. We were told that only two of the bandits escaped.”
Bandit
Another resident, Ashafa Sani, said he heard heavy gunshots as soldiers engaged the bandits.
“I was watching films around 1 a. m. when I started hearing heavy gunshots. It was terrifying but thanks to Allah, the man has been saved”.
“I think when the soldiers came and it was obvious that they had been rounded up, the bandits decided to kill Papa because they shot him twice in the leg. The soldiers rescued him and taken him to the hospital. I was at the hospital this afternoon to see him because he is my neighbor,” he said.
