Bandits have shot dead five vigilante members and one hunter in an ambush at Lafiya-Kpada-Duma forest in Niger state, Northcentral region.
POLITICS NIGERIA learned that six other vigilantes sustained various degrees of bullet injuries in the ambush.
The incident happened on Friday afternoon after some vigilantes from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Niger state mobilised to the forest to rescue about 22 farmers that were abducted at a farm at Rafin-Daji community in Abaji area council of Abuja, on Wednesday.
The vigilante members and hunters were approaching the forest when the terrorists who had laid ambush opened fire.
Since 2010, gangs of bandits have run riot in vast swaths of northern Nigeria, but only in the last few years has the crisis ballooned into national prominence in Africa’s most populous country.
