Bandits said to be numbering about 60 and heavily armed, in the early hours of Wednesday, invaded a military camp in Zazzaga community in Munya Local Government Area of Niger State and engaged the soldiers in a gun battle, leading to heavy casualties on the side of the bandits.
This latest attack on a military base in the state is coming barely three weeks after bandits in their numbers attacked a Security Joint Task Force base in Allawa and Basa in Shiroro Local Government Area of the state, killing five soldiers and a Mobile Policeman.
Although, unlike the Allawa and Basa invasion, no soldier was killed in this latest attack except one identified as the RSM of the camp who was declared missing; his whereabouts are still unknown as of the time of filing this report.
According to a reliable source close to Zagzaga community, the bandits stormed the community at about 4.00am and shared themselves into three groups.
While one group made their way straight to the military camp located at the Junior Secondary School about 500 meters from the town where they engaged the soldiers in a gun battle, the second group laid ambush on the major road leading to the community.
The third group were said to have made their way to the community to prevent any reinforcements from the community vigilantes and the youths.
Our source said that after two hours of gun exchange from 4.00am to 6.00am, the soldiers ran out of ammunition and made a retreat but not until they (soldiers) inflated heavy casualties on the bandits.
After the soldiers made a retreat, the bandits stormed the camp, set the military vehicles on fire and went away with another. The bandits also burnt the food store in the camp.
“I think the bandits might have used the military vehicle to evacuate the injured ones and possibly some dead ones among them because the soldiers really fought them to stand still until their ammunitions finished.
“The bandits came around 4.00am, and since that time, it has been gunshot sounds until about 6.00am this morning”, our source added.
The military camp in Zagzaga has been in existence since 2012 when the activities of the bandits took a different dimension with the killing of no fewer than 50 members of the community in one month while about 500 others fled to neighbouring communities.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Wasiu Abiodun, was not reachable to confirm the incident as all calls and messages to his phone were not responded to as at press time.
