The Katsina State Police Command on Saturday said it had arrested one Amadu Yusuf, suspected to be a notorious bandit and rescued 14 kidnapped victims in Kwantawama village of Dutsin-ma Local Government Area of the state.
A statement issued in Katsina by the command’s spokesman, Gambo Isah, stated that the victims were rescued by the operatives of Operation Puff Adder after a serious gun duel with the bandits, numbering about 40 in Rugu forest.
Isah, a superintendent of police, said the police received a distress call at about 01:00hrs that bandits with AK47 rifles attacked the village and kidnapped 14 women, including children and rustled unspecified number of cattle and sheep.
He said the Operation Puff Adder team, led by Divisional Police Officer in charge of Dutsin-ma, CSP Muhammad Makama, swiftly moved to the area and rescued the victims, recovered 30 cattle and 60 sheep.
He said: “Today (Saturday) 18/07/2020 at about 01:00hrs, DPO Dutsinma, CSP Muhammad Makama, led “Operation Puff Adder” to Kwantawama village, Dutsinma LGA of Katsina state, based on a report that bandits numbering about forty (40), on motorcycles, armed with AK 47 rifles, attacked the village, kidnapped fourteen (14) women including children and rustled large number of domestic animals.
“The team chased after the hoodlums into the fringes of Rugu forest and engaged them in a gun duel.
“The team succeeded and dislodged the bandits, rescued all the kidnapped fourteen women, thirty (30) cows, sixty (60) sheep and arrested one of the bandits later identified as Amadu Yusuf, M, aged 30yrs of Tudu village, Dutsinma LGA of Katsina state. Investigation is ongoing”.
