Crime
Gunmen kill 12 in Taraba
Twelve people died when gunmen opened fire on villagers in troubled northeast Nigeria, police said.
The attackers, dressed as local vigilantes and carrying heavy weapons, invaded a herding village in Bali district in Taraba state, gathering residents in the open before shooting them, state police spokesman Usman Abdullahi said late Monday.
Taraba is one of several northern states struggling with criminal gangs known locally as bandits, who raid villages, looting and killing residents or kidnapping them for ransom.
Some communities form vigilante militias for protection, but they are often accused of abuses and extrajudicial killings in revenge attacks.
“We recovered 12 bodies,” Abdullahi said of the attack, which happened on Sunday. Eight other residents are still missing and soldiers, policemen and local hunters are combing for them in the surrounding areas, he said.
“The attackers posed as vigilantes fighting criminal gangs and told the villagers that they were at the village to arrest some suspects,” he said.
The assailants fled with 130 cattle, several motorcycles and food supplies, Abdullahi said.
Police deployed in the area arrested four of the attackers dressed in vigilante uniforms, riding on motorcycles stolen from the village and carrying looted food, he said.
“The suspects are helping with (the) investigation, we want to establish if the attackers are indeed vigilantes or just criminals using the vigilante uniforms as a cover.”
Nigeria’s bandit violence has its roots in clashes between nomadic herders and farming communities over access to land and water resources.
The cycle of violence has spiralled with the formation of heavily armed criminal gangs who are challenging security forces in northern parts of the country.
Taraba state has also seen a surge in jihadist attacks recently with violence targeting bars and security forces.
Nigeria’s armed forces are battling a 13-year jihadist insurgency centred in northeast Borno state, which has left 40,000 people dead and displaced more than two million more.
The Anambra State Police Command has foiled a cult initiation ceremony in Nawfia, Njikoka Local Government Area of the state.
Spokesperson for the Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, disclosed this in a statement issued on Tuesday in Awka.
According to Ikenga, the operation was carried out by police operatives around 9:30am on June 15, leading to the arrest of six suspects at the scene.
Recovered during the raid were one Jojef pump action gun, two cartridges, and a golden-coloured Lexus SUV with registration number ATN 202 AE. Other items found include two cutlasses, two scissors, a cap bearing the inscription of the Supreme Vikings Confraternity, charms, and substances suspected to be hard drugs.
“They are currently undergoing police interrogation to get more insight into their modus operandi, after which the case will be charged to court on the conclusion of the investigations,” Ikenga stated.
The police spokesperson reassured residents of the command’s unwavering commitment to fighting cultism and other related crimes across the state.
An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, on Wednesday, remanded two persons, Olaitan Fasasi and Kehinde Tobiloba in a correctional facility over alleged attempted murder.
Fasasi, 40, and Tobiloba, 26, whose addresses were not provided, are being charged with conspiracy, attempted murder and membership of a secret society.
The Magistrate, Mr L.A Owolabi, did not take the plea of the defendants for want of jurisdiction.
Owolabi directed the police to forward the case file to the Director of Public Prosecution for legal advice.
He thereafter adjourned the case until May 31 for mention.
The Prosecutor, Josephine Ikhayere, told the court that the defendants committed the offences at about 5.02p.m on Feb. 15, at Mushin, Lagos.
She said that Fasasi, Tobiloba and others now at large, attempted to commit murder by shooting at a resident, Alfred Ademola.
“They armed themselves with a locally made gun. They belong to Eiye Confraternity, a group proscribed by law,”, she said.
Ikhayere said that the offences contravened Sections 230(1) and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2012.
He said that the actions of the defendants also contravened Section 2(3)(a)(b)(c)(d) of the unlawful societies and Cultism Law of Lagos State Law.
An Area Court in Jos, on Tuesday, sentenced one Jeptha John, to three months imprisonment for stealing a Redmi mobile phone valued at N165, 000.
The judge, Shawomi Bokkos, sentenced the John after he pleaded guilty to the offence.
The judge, however, gave the convict an option to pay N20, 000 fine and N50, 000 restitution to the complainant.
Bokkos said that if the convict defaulted in paying the restitution, three months should be added to his sentence to make it six months imprisonment.
Earlier, the police prosecutor, Insp Monday Dabit, told the court that the case was reported at the B Division Police Station, Jos, on Dec. 1, 2024, by Ms Nerat Danjuma.
He said that the complainant alleged that the defendant trespassed into her house and stole her mobile phone valued at N165, 000.
The prosecutor further told the court that the offence contravened the Plateau State Penal Code, Law of Northern Nigeria.
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