Bandits attack Niger community, four Chinese, others kidnapped

<p><strong>The Ajata Aboki village&comma; Shiroro Local Government Area&comma; of Niger State&comma; was the scene of a bandit attack on a mining facility&comma; according to the Niger State government&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The state’s commissioner for internal security&comma; Mr&period; Emmanuel Umaru&comma; acknowledged the attack&comma; via a statement released on Thursday in Minna&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to Umaru&comma; the bandits attacked the location on Wednesday at around 6&colon;00 p&period;m&comma; and kidnapped four Chinese nationals including a yet to be ascertained number of people&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He further noted that the administration promptly mobilized a joint security team to the area in response to a distress call&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Consequently&comma; the joint security team engaged the terrorists and they were yet to determine the number of casualties from both sides&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;However&comma; a yet to be ascertained number of workers in the mining site including four Chinese nationals were reported to have been abducted&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Security forces were reinforced for the manhunt of the remaining terrorists as some of them were neutralised and rescue of the injured victims including security personnel&comma;” Umaru added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The commissioner said that those injured had been evacuated to government hospitals for treatment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;While the Niger government commiserates with heads of security agencies in the state and families of the slain personnel&comma; the state government assures that their sacrifices will not go in vain&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The state government acknowledge all the efforts of the joint security operatives and that of the communities toward taming the spate of insecurity in some parts of the state&comma;” he added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Umar urged the security men to continue carrying out their constitutionally mandated responsibilities in the face of all threats&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He gave them the assurance that the state government would keep giving them the assistance they needed to end banditry in the state&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The commissioner further stated that security organizations have been instructed by Governor Abubakar Bello to ensure the safe return of the abducted victims&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;