Barely two weeks after suspected cattle rustlers shot and injured an elderly Fulani herdsman before stealing 23 cows at a camp at Duda village in Kuje Area Council, some rustlers again invaded another herder’s settlement on Tuesday night at a neighbouringKujekwa village and stole 43 cows.
A witness said the incident happened around 11:23 p.m. when the rustlers in their large numbers and armed with guns invaded the camp through a bush path from neighbouringLoko-Goma village in Nasarawa State.
He said the rustlers shot sporadically into the air for almost an hour, thereby forcing some of the residents that were sleeping in front of their houses as a result of the hot weather to run into their rooms for safety.
“In fact, the entire residents of the village were terrified as a result of the gunshots to the extent that one of my neighbours almost ran into the bush but I advised him to stay and keep on praying,’’he said
He said some local hunters at the community were unable to confront the rustlers due to the sophisticated guns they were using and that the rustlers later escaped with the cows through the bush, unchallenged.
He lamented over lack of police outpost at the community to check the activities of cattle rustlers in the area, and urged the council authorities to provide a police outpost in order to tackle activities of armed bandits in the area, who sometimes attack traders returning from the market in Nasarawa State.
‘’The area council has been promising that it will liaise with the FCT police command to provide us a police outpost but for two years now nothing has been done,” he said.
Effort to get the reaction of the Kuje Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Mr. Echo Nwabeko, were not successful, while a police officer said the division was not aware of the incident, even as he said the village is far from Kuje town.
It would be recalled that late last year some suspected rustlers invaded the community, killed two people and carted away over 300 cows belonging to indigenes of the area.
He said the rustlers shot sporadically into the air for almost an hour, thereby forcing some of the residents that were sleeping in front of their houses as a result of the hot weather to run into their rooms for safety.
“In fact, the entire residents of the village were terrified as a result of the gunshots to the extent that one of my neighbours almost ran into the bush but I advised him to stay and keep on praying,’’he said
He said some local hunters at the community were unable to confront the rustlers due to the sophisticated guns they were using and that the rustlers later escaped with the cows through the bush, unchallenged.
He lamented over lack of police outpost at the community to check the activities of cattle rustlers in the area, and urged the council authorities to provide a police outpost in order to tackle activities of armed bandits in the area, who sometimes attack traders returning from the market in Nasarawa State.
‘’The area council has been promising that it will liaise with the FCT police command to provide us a police outpost but for two years now nothing has been done,” he said.
Effort to get the reaction of the Kuje Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Mr. Echo Nwabeko, were not successful, while a police officer said the division was not aware of the incident, even as he said the village is far from Kuje town.
It would be recalled that late last year some suspected rustlers invaded the community, killed two people and carted away over 300 cows belonging to indigenes of the area.
