“Serious Battle, About 200 Bandits Against 35 Soldiers” Kebbi Dep Gov Narrates Attack On Convoy

The deputy governor of Kebbi State, Samaila Yombe has provided finer details of the attack on his convoy by armed bandits.

The convoy of the deputy governor of Yobe state was attacked on Wednesday, March 9, 2022.

The tragic incident occurred at Kanya, Dangu Wasagu Local Government, Kebbi state.

Narrating the incident that resulted in multiple deaths on both sides – to the media – on Thursday, March 10, 2022, Samaila Yombe who asserted “it was a serious battle” explained “To narrow down to your question. What happened? A lot has happened. We have been supplying necessary logistics to the security agencies to carry out their jobs in the process. In the process, I have to go see the military on the battlefield to see how they were executing that mission,” he said.

“Yesterday at Kanya, a very serious battle took place. What happened was that the bandits mixed with the inhabitants of Kanya in such a way that it was difficult for you to say let us fight these people — the collateral damage would be great.

“So, I advised the CO (referring to the army commanding officer in the entourage) that let us pull out of the town so we will pull them (referring to Bandits) along to separate them from the inhabitants.

“We did that but in the process, of course in a battle situation, there are bound to be casualties. It is in process of disengaging them from the town to a more suitable place… they were vulnerable, we were also vulnerable, that is why both sides sustained casualties. Believe me, honestly, they had more casualties than we did…

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“From the gunshots one can assume and assess that there are about 150 or 200 bandits and the soldiers were simply a unit of about 30 to 35 troops escorting the commanding officer whom I joined to visit the troops as I earlier mentioned.

“In terms of strength they were all overwhelmed because of that it was impossible for the troops to manoeuvre. Again, fighting when the bandits have mixed up with the civilians we have to be careful.

“They (referring to soldiers) were up against more than 100 to 200 bandits all equipped with AKPs and relatively much heavier calibre weapons than AK-47s.”