No fewer than 23 people were shot dead on Saturday as bandits disguised as wedding guests wrecked some communities in the neighbourhood of Kankara in Katsina State in North West, Nigeria.
Among the dead are 2 women with several others sustaining gunshot injuries.
Reports said, bandits who came for the wedding of one of their Commanders began to enter the neighborhood of Kankara village one by one on the night of Friday which was a day to the event without anyone suspecting of their motives.
A source narrated as saying: “The bandits actually entered the village since Friday,10th March 2023, when they went to Majifa settlement to celebrate the wedding of one of their commanders known as Walima, who also goes by the nickname “Mai Katifa Mutuwa”, but they waited until Saturday to carry out the attack.”
“Instead of leaving peacefully after the wedding party, the bandits chose to invade nearby villages in the area on Saturday.
“They attacked several settlements, including Danmarke, Gidan Sale, Gidan Sarka, Gidan Jiho, Gidan Ancho, among others”.
“Some vigilantes attempted to stop the hoodlums, but they were not enough to match their fighting power as they unleashed mayhem on the neighbourhood.
“This morning, we gathered that 23 villagers were killed in the attack. We attended the burial rites of some of them this morning.”
A villager told journalists that some of the injured have been moved to Kankara General Hospital while others to hospitals in the state capital, Katsina.
Reacting to the development, Katsina State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Gambo Isah, confirmed the incident saying, there were casualties on the side of Bandits in the encounter too.
