Barely 24 hours after Usman Alkali Baba, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), and officers of the Nigeria Police Force visited the Abuja-Kaduna highway on Saturday, bandits attacked Anguwar Maji, Jere, a town located along the highway.

In an interview with Daily Trust, Sheu Bala, a resident of Anguwar Maji, who confirmed the incident, said the bandits stormed the village around 11pm on Sunday.

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According to him, the assailants arrived en masse with rifles.

“The bandits came in large numbers as some of them wore army uniforms,” Bala was quoted to have said.

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“They moved from house to house and woke their victims up before they marched them into the bush at gunpoint.”

The bandits operated uninterruptedly in the village for over an hour and marched 22 villagers into the bush. Only one escaped from where they were kept, according to Bala.

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On Monday, March 28, bandits attacked an Abuja-Kaduna train, killing at least eight people. Reacting to the attack, the IGP and the officers of the police patrolled the Kaduna-Abuja highway on Saturday.

FIJ attempted to speak with ASP Mohammed Jalinge, the Kaduna Police Public Relations Officer, on the phone, but his line could not be reached.