12 feared dead as bandits turn guns against each other

The unusual happened on Friday in Kusasu Community in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger state, when a group of bandits engaged one another in a gun battle, leading to the death of no fewer than 12 of them while scores were seriously injured.

Many others escaped for their lives, leaving their camp in Kusasu in complete disarray as members of the community watched with disbelief.

The internal fight among this group of bandits followed a sharp disagreement between the boys and their leader, popularly referred to as Mallam Dogogide who had accused his boys of shortchanging him after operations.

Mallam Dogogide is one of the leaders of the three notorious bandits groups operating within Shiroro Local government in Niger and Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State.

Mallam Dogogide, it was gathered, had also accused his boys of going against their operational rules, by killing villagers indiscriminately and raping married women, and therefore decided to summon them for a meeting.

Mallam Dogogide was said to have, during the meeting, seized cachet of ammunition from his boys, threatening to sack them and recruit new hands for “their disloyalty” and flaunting the group rules of engagement during operation.

According to a family close to the community, Dogogide’s action did not go down well with his boys which led to a heated argument and in the process one of his boys attempted to kill him when he opened fire but the bullet could not enter his boss.

It was at this point that Dogogide and a few loyal ones opened fire and gun down 12 of the “disgruntled ones” while others escaped for their lives.

A reliable source from the community told our correspondent that after the shooting, the bandits came to the community, abducted 10 people to help them bury their colleagues that were killed.

The Villagers were however released after the burial with a stern warning not to disclose the incident to the public.