Gangs of criminals known locally as “bandits” have kidnapped Colonel Lawal Rabi’u Yandoto (retd).
POLITICS NIGERIA learned that Yandoto was en route to his hometown Yandoto in Tsafe Local Government Area (LGA) of Zamfara State when he was abducted and taken to the forest by the outlaws.
According to a source, the bandits had also kidnapped two of the retired colonel’s children alongside two other persons who were with him at the time of the attack.
The incident happened around 6:00 pm on Sunday.
“We heard sporadic gunshots very close to our Yandoto town and everybody started running helter-skelter for our safety.
“Immediately after the gunshots, we realised that the retired army officer has been abducted,” the source said.
Yandoto is a political rival to a former senator who represented Zamfara Central senatorial district in the 7th and the 8th Nigerian senate (2011 to 2019), Kabir Marafa, and has been campaigning against the latter’s ambition in respect of the 2023 election.
He is the leader of the Zamfara All Progressive Congress (APC) political group called ‘Wake da Shinkafa’.
Meanwhile, efforts to get comments from the Zamfara State police command spokesperson, Muhammad Shehu, were unsuccessful as he could not be reached on phone as of the time of publishing this report.
