By 
By Abiodun OBA
Bandits in their large number on Thursday invaded a mosque in Tsafe town, the headquarter of Tsafe local government areas of Zamfara state kidnapping about forty (40) Worshippers.
A source from Tsafe town who gave his name as Yahaya Aminu, said that the worshippers were about to start their morning prayer around 5 am when the gunmen attacked and directed everybody to go out and follow them.
Yahaya said, “As I am talking to you right now more than forty (40) people have been kidnapped by the bandits, we were about to start our morning prayer today Thursday when suddenly they (bandits) in large number entered the mosque and direct everybody to follow them, thank God I was lucky to sneaked out and dodged because we are many they couldn’t have the control over all of us.
“Everybody scampered for safety but the bandits, because they carried sophisticated weapons, blocked everywhere and warned that they would kill any one who tries to run away”, Yaha said.
Another escaped victim, Sani Tsafe narrated that he was at the fourth line of congregational prayers when the bandits entered and shouted that all of us should not move an inch and directed us to follow them to the bush.
“I was able to jump out of the window and ran quickly into one of the uncompleted buildings near the mosque where I hid myself. Unfortunately, two of my brothers Ya’u and Sale were among those kidnapped and moved to the bush.
“The mosque was full to capacity when the bandits attacked the place and very few of us were able to escape.”
According to him, the bandits left their motorcycles far away from the mosque so that the worshippers would not notice their movement before they came into the mosque.
“They came on foot, leaving their motorcycles outside the town so that they would not attract the attention of the people in the area and later marched the worshippers to their motorcycles and took them to the forest,” he recounted.
Sani Tsafe therefore appealed to both state and Federal Governments to come to the aid of people in the state, stressing that the activities of Banditry has taken over the entire state which really need urgent intervention”.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the community leader in the area said, the recent inaugurated Community Protection Guard (CPG) in the area have pursued the bandits down to the bush in order to rescue the kidnapped worshippers.
Tsafe local government area which is about 45 kilometer away from Gusau the capital of the state, is worse hit by the activities of the bandits where people are been kidnapped along the road on daily basis.
When contacted, the spokesman of the state Police Command ASP Yazid, said he has never gathered the full details of the matter but promised to feed back.
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