Scores of armed bandits fleeing the ongoing military operation in Zamfara and Katsina States last Friday met their waterloo in the hands of soldiers at Maganda village near Alawa, in Shiroro local government area of Niger State.
The bandits who were allegedly escaping through the notorious Alawa thick forest, in their hundreds, ran into the military camp stationed at Alawa, and engaged the soldiers in a serious gun duel for several hours.
At the end of the face-off with the fleeing hoodlums by the military, one soldier was allegedly missing while scores of the armed bandits were neutralised, as several others escaped into the forest with bullets wounds.
Those who escaped with serious bullets wounds were still being trailed by the soldiers as the entire forest was being combed in search of the escaped ones.
About six machine guns and several AK-47 rifles and bags of live ammunition were said to have been recovered from the bandits.
According to a source close to the Alawa community, who would not want his name to be mentioned in the print during a brief chat with the journalists at the weekend in Minna, most of the bandits killed all resembled foreigners as they have no resemblance to Nigerians.
The very reliable source, however, revealed that though one soldier was said to have been killed by the bandits, the soldiers recorded a huge success by killing several of them, saying, “As I speak with you now, the bodies of the bandits killed are still littered in the bush”.
This is one of the major breakthroughs recorded by the military in its war against armed bandits in the state in recent times.
Recall that the bandits had around April this year, invaded the military base in Alawa, and killed five soldiers and a mobile policeman.
At the time of the attack on the military base, the entire military camp was set on fire by the armed bandits who invaded the base at about 3:00 am when soldiers had just returned to their base from area patrol.
After the invasion of the military base, the bandits moved to the nearby community where they were said to have killed about seven persons and abducted several villagers.
