Armed bandits stormed Billashe village in Birnin Magaji Local Government Area of Zamfara State, and carted away about 600 rams and cows.
Residents of the village said the incident occurred in the night, lamenting that the situation will prevent many of them from slaughtering rams during the Eid-el-Kabir festival.
Earlier in the week, the Divisional Police Officer attached to the local government and a suspected cattle rustler escaped lynching by a mob in Nassarawa Godel village, when the former attempted to rescue the latter from being killed by youths.
Resident of a village neighbouring Billashe, Ibrahim Aliyu, said the bandits carried out a house-to-house operation.
He added that some residents went after the bandits and recovered their animals.
He added: “You know Eid el-Kabir is approaching and it is a tradition for families in rural Zamfara to rear rams and other domestic animals for sacrifice and sale, but the bandits have disrupted the plans by their action. Some residents of the village fled the area for safety and I accommodated two of them in my house.”
The spokesman of the police command Lawan Abdullahi, confirmed the incident, adding that they were working with the military to recover the stolen animals. He said cattle rustling is persisting in the area because of its difficult terrain. He said most of the villages are inaccessible due to bad roads and poor telephone networks.
He, however, added that between June and August this year, the command in collaboration with the military was able to recover 2,219 stolen cows.
