Bandits abduct seminarians, customs officers in Nigeria raid
Thursday January 09 2020
Bandits on January 8,2020 abducted seminarians and customs officers in Nigeria raid. FOTOSEARCH
Bandits in Nigeria have abducted four seminarians in a raid in Kakau, northern Nigeria.
The attackers assailed the Catholic Good Shepherd Major Seminary on Wednesday night and kidnapped the seminarists before raiding a customs office.
Rev Fr (Dr) Joel Usman, the Registrar of the Seminary confirmed the incident, saying, “Good Shepherd Major Seminary was attacked by armed bandits yesterday (Wednesday) between 10.30 and 11:00pm.”
“After head count of students with security agents, four Seminarians have been declared missing. Kindly say a prayer for their release,” he said.
In another attack on Thursday, gunmen kidnapped four officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) at a check point in Dan-Bedi village along Jibia-Batsari road in Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State, north-western Nigeria.
In in a statement on Thursday, Nigerian Customs said that “the bandits on motorcycles arrived the customs checkpoint and seized the officers weapons and shot sporadically to scare residents and kidnapped the officers alongside many motorists who were on their way to Batsari.
“The bandits later went north-east and disappeared into the forest with the officers and the motorists. And other commercial drivers who escaped the attack ran to Jibia town.”
The spokesman of the Katsina State Customs Area Command, Peter Duniya, said: “We got information about the incident this morning and investigation is ongoing.”
The attack and abduction of the customs officers happened less than 24 hours after unknown gunmen killed Dr Umar Isah, a senior lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
The lecturer was killed in Malumfashi Local Government Area of Kaduna state.
Reports say that bandits also attacked a television viewing centre in Jibia on January 7, 2020 and killed two people, leaving many others injured.
No fewer than four people were again killed in an attack by bandits on Beni community in Munya local government area of Niger State on January 8, 2020.
Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger in a press statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Ms Mary Barje, appealed to security operatives to assist the state with fresh and holistic approach to tackle banditry.