At least 22 villages were reportedly kidnapped by bandits who raided homes in Anguwar Maji, Jere town along the Abuja-Kaduna highway.
The raid comes barely 24 hours after the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, visited and patrolled the highway in the wake of the Abuja-Kaduna train attacks.
Jere, which shares a boundary with Tafa-Sabon-Wuse in Niger State, is located on the ever-busy Abuja-Kaduna highway.
A resident of Anguwar Maji, Shehu Bala, said the incident happened around 11 pm on Sunday, it was reported on Monday.
Bala said the bandits, who came in large numbers and wielded AK-47 rifles, invaded some houses and whisked away 22 residents, including five women.
“The bandits came in their large numbers as some of them wore army uniforms.
“They moved from house to house and woke their victims up before they marched them into the bush at gunpoint,” he said.
According to him, the bandits operated silently in the community for over an hour.
He added that they only started shooting sporadically to scare people from coming after them after leaving the community.
Bala, however, said one of the 22 kidnapped victims escaped from his abductors while being led into the bush.
CKN