The Katsina State Police Command, on Friday, said its operatives foiled a kidnap attempt by bandits at Kirijam village, Mahuta ward, Dandume Local Government Area of Katsina State late Thursday night and rescued nine people initially kidnapped.
The Command also said that several bandits, who sustained injuries during a fierce encounter with its operatives during the rescue operation, escaped into the forest with injuries.
The spokesman for the command, SP Gambo Isah, made the disclosure in a statement made available to journalists in Katsina on Friday.
The statement read in part, “On 01/07/2021 at about 23:00hrs, bandits in their numbers, shooting sporadically with AK 47 rifles, attacked Kirijam village, Mahuta Ward of Dandume LGA and kidnapped nine persons. On receipt of the report, DPO Dandume Division, led a team of Policemen and blocked their possible exit route at Kadawan Maikomo village, Sabuwa LGA.
“Fortunately, the bandits followed through the route and fell into a police ambush. The team engaged the bandits into a fierce gun duel and successfully repelled them.
“The doggedness, uncommon courage and tactical operational strategy adopted by the Police officers made the bandits to flee into the forest with varying degree of bullets wounds. In the course of profiling the scene, all the nine abducted persons were rescued unhurt and some GSM phones and food items stolen from the village by the hoodlums were also recovered.”
The Command implored residents of the state, particularly those in the Frontline councils to cooperate with security agencies by giving them credible information on bandits and their collaborators, especially those supplying them with arms and ammunition, informants and other essential commodities.
The Command assured that its operatives remain resolute and committed in the ongoing fight against recalcitrant bandits until they are arrested and dealt with according to the extant laws of the land.
