According to Vanguard, people in the affected area said that the hoodlums attacked the communities at about 11 pm.

“The bandits operated for about an hour before security operatives came. They went away with three persons at Keke ‘A’. They targeted a big house in the area,” a resident was quoted as saying.

“The bandits came around 11 pm. I think their main target was a house at Keke A. The house belongs to a military officer. But at the time of the attack, the officer was not at home. So, the kidnappers broke into the house and picked (up) his wife.

“They also kidnapped another man who is the immediate neighbour of the military officer. In fact, the neighbour was picked (up) alongside his 8-year-old daughter, but they eventually dropped the daughter when her mother was shouting at the top of her voice.

“I think it was at the point they started shooting sporadically to scare away people who might think of coming to their aid. While all that was happening, another man who was just returning home in his car ran into the kidnappers. He was the third person that was taken away.

“Other people who were still outside including neighborhood shop operators escaped the bandits, as they had to run to safety. As at this morning, we saw many shoes on the ground and we became scared that those must be the shoes of the people kidnapped. But, one of the people who escaped the attack told us the shoes belonged to those who ran away.”

At Keke ‘B’, another resident said, “A man, his wife and their two house girls (home helps) were kidnapped by the bandits. I was so terrified. I just got out of the bathroom abruptly and switched off all the lights inside my house. The gunshots were so close, it was like the bandits were inside my compound. I later discovered that one man, his wife and their two house girls (home helps) were kidnapped.”

In a related development, five people were reportedly kidnapped on Monday from Gwando village in the Kajuru Local Government Area of the state.

“Gwando village is not far from Roboh village where worshippers were abducted on Sunday around 7 am after killing three people,” a source said.

“Gwando is also before Dogon noma and Maikori villages where 32 people were killed on June 5, allegedly with the aid of a helicopter, though the state government denied it on 9th June – four days after the villages were attacked.

According to the state government, the helicopter was there to repel the bandits.

“What is happening around these rural communities is that armed kidnappers are ‘harvesting’ human beings. They followed them into their communities or farms and kidnapped those they can and kill those who resist. Then they asked for ransoms in figures their victims had never seen,” the source said.