Suspected bandits blocked the Bakori, Guga road in Katsina State on Friday evening. They kidnapped at least nine travellers who were returning from a weekly market, according to a community leader and local residents.
The incident happened around 5 p.m. at Dawan La’ila. This is a part of the road that connects Bakori and Guga communities. The gunmen stopped the vehicle carrying the passengers coming from the Bakori market.
Mahadi Danbita, a community leader, spoke to PREMIUM TIMES in a phone call on Saturday. He said the attackers halted the vehicle and took away nine passengers.
Danbita mentioned that four of the kidnapped individuals lived in Guga. The other five were from Kakumi, a nearby community roughly nine kilometres away.
The victims were heading home after the weekly Bakori market when the attack took place. Danbita said the attackers also robbed the passengers of cash, mobile phones, and other belongings.
“They attacked people returning from the market. They abducted nine people. We are still gathering information from the affected families and some who managed to escape,” Danbita stated.
He added that community members reported one person was killed and another injured during the attack. However, PREMIUM TIMES could not verify these claims at the time of this report.
Danbita said the vehicle that was attacked was later taken to the Guga Primary Healthcare Centre. He also shared the names of four people believed to be among those kidnapped. They are Sagir Mani Danmadami, Babangida Dangwaggo, Bala Magaji, and Abdullahi Muh’d Dabo.
PREMIUM TIMES could not confirm the identities of the other victims right away. Danbita noted that this recent event is part of a pattern of attacks on farmers and commuters in the Guga area.
He said armed men had attacked farmers earlier that week, kidnapping several people and stealing motorcycles, mobile phones, and other valuables.
The community leader also mentioned that about 125 local hunters had been sent to Guga to support the existing security forces, including forest guards and other security personnel.
He speculated that the increased security might have triggered this latest attack by the gunmen, but he did not provide any evidence to support this claim.
PREMIUM TIMES could not verify the deployment or link it to Friday’s attack. Efforts to get a response from the Katsina State Police Command have not succeeded as of the time of this report.
Southern Katsina has faced repeated attacks by armed groups in recent years. Commuters, farmers, and rural communities are often targeted in kidnappings and other violent attacks, even with ongoing security operations in the region.
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