By Ahmed Salisu
For the third time in less than a month, armed men have again struck in Kaduna, the North Central Nigerian State.
This time, the bandits kidnapped another 61 people among who were children and women.
Sources told Irohinoodua that some 61 were abducted at Buda community in Kajuru local government area of Kaduna State.
Sources said they stormed the community between 11pm and 1am
They were said to have come into the community shooting into the air to scare residents.
“What happened yesterday was terrifying. The bandits came intending to abduct scores of people that’ll outnumber that of school pupils in Kuriga Village of Chikun local government area, but the swift response of soldiers who were not more than 2km away from Kajuru helped to reduce the number,” one resident told a journalist from Leadership newspapers.
He said“My siblings were part of those abducted yesterday and from available information as of this morning, the bandits with their victims are yet to get to their destination,” another resident, Manyu, said.
Kaduna has seen a string of armed attacks in recent weeks.
Apart from the kidnap of 280 pupils, there have been several cases of kidnapping in Kaduna this year.
Yusuff Saliu, a native of Badu said people living in the area are now at the mercy or armed men.
“We can sleep. We live in fear. They come for us as if we are slaves. They pick us like fowl. We don’t have any sense of humanity any longer” he told Irohinoodua.
He said he was worried that the bandits operate for many hours without security response.
“How can they take away 280 people. We are not talking of five or six, but 280 people. They take them in such large numbers and nobody saw them. Its strange. And the kidnappers came back again and again with courage and conviction” he lamented.