Rampaging suspected armed bandits reportedly attacked Saminaka, a village along with the Bale – Tangaza road, Sunday evening and killed six people in retaliation for the vigilantes’ onslaught, which resulted in the deaths of several of their members.

According to a trustworthy source, the Saminaka attacks resulted in the death of children as well as the shooting of housewives who attempted to flee.

According to the source, “I am presently with the corpses as I am talking to you now, they slaughtered the children like goats while the women were shot at while running away to escape from the bandits.

“The local vigilante people are on their trail into the bush and we prayed those bastards will be captured and deal with accordingly.”

When approached, ASP Sanusi Abubakar, a spokesman for the Sokoto police command, refused to comment, claiming that he had not been adequately informed of the incident.

On Friday evening, after Magrib prayers, armed bandits, presumed to be remnants of those under bombardment by the Nigerian army in Zamfara jungles, infiltrated Tangaza local government areas of Sokoto state.

They plundered stores, homes, and food supplies. They killed two people and kidnapped others from the village.

Enraged residents, including youths and local vigilantes, rallied and rushed the bush in pursuit of the bandits on Saturday in reaction to the earlier onslaught by the bandits.

According to a source from the local administration who spoke with a The Punch correspondent, the search team captured sixteen individuals, ten in Tangaza town and six in Gidan Maadi.

“The suspects were initially handed over to the police but, when the news of the arrest filtered into the town, members of the said communities demanded that they should be immediately killed by the police.

“When all efforts to convince the police to kill them was unsuccessful, residents overpowered the police in their station, seized the suspects, and killed them all.

“Some of the bandits believed to have supernatural power were even set on fire to ensure that they were all killed,” the anonymous source narrated.”