Eleven persons have been slain by bandits in the Dangulbi hamlet of Zamfara State's Maru Local Government Area.
On Sunday afternoon, July 10, the bandits belonging to infamous drug lord Damina reportedly broke into multiple farms in the neighbourhood, killing 11 people and leaving many more missing.
Mohammed Shehu, a spokesman for the Zamfara State Police Command, verified the number of casualties to Channels Television on Monday morning and said that the police have since sent a reinforcement squad to the area to bring the neighbourhood back to normality and tranquilly.
Shehu claims that the tactical police officers have started a community-building patrol in the impacted neighbourhood.
The command has already dispatched a reinforcement team to the affected community, and the reinforcement team was able to restore normalcy in the area. The one we have at our disposal is 11 people (killed). They are currently engaged in confidence-boosting patrol, and the situation in that axis is largely normal, he said.
Locals who talked to Channels TV bemoaned that bandit attacks had been occurring often in Dangulbi and the nearby settlements over the past few days.
Saifullahi Ibrahim, a resident of Maru LGA, claimed the famed bandit asked the community for a charge of N2 million so they could cultivate their property during the rainy season, and the locals complied.
He described how a bandit kingpin by the name of Damina demanded N2 million from our people in order for them to be allowed to develop their lands, which is when the wave of attacks against our communities began.
Ibrahim claims that Kango, a different community only 2 kilometres from Dangulbi, was assaulted last Friday and that seven people were reportedly slain.
"He (Damina) assaulted Kango village, a community located two kilometres from Dangulbi, and seven people were slain.
Then, yesterday (Sunday), in the late afternoon, he travelled to the area around Dangulbi while people were working on their farms.
14 people were proven dead on their various farms after they (the terrorists) collected them up, and some are still missing.
Lawali Yusuf, Basiru Bakwai, Murtala, Ashiru Suleman, Dayyabu Adamu, Sufiyanu Sani, and Kamalu Sani were among the victims named by the resident.