By Ismail Auwal
Five residents of Chakumi village in Gurdi ward, Abuja Area Council, drowned while attempting to flee a bandit attack.
The residents, who included four male adults and a housewife, were working in a farmland on Wednesday around 11 a.m. when they spotted the bandits.
They attempted to escape by canoe to neighboring Daku village, but the boat capsized while attempting to cross the Gurara River, Daily Trust reported.
The village chief of Chakumi, Mohammed Magaji, while confirming said at time of writing the bodies of the victims have not been recovered yet as fishermen from Daku and my village are still searching for the corpses.
Magaji, who decried activities of bandits in the area, said farmers could no longer go to their farms over fear of being kidnapped by bandits.
Vice-Chairman of Abaji LGA, Ibrahim Abubakar, also confirmed the incident, disclosing that one of his relatives was among those who drowned
“In fact, one of my relatives was among those that got drowned and their bodies are yet to be recovered up till this moment that I am talking to you,” he said.
Chakumi shares boundary with neighboring Daku village through river Gurara in Dobi ward of Gwagwalada area council of the the nation’s capital.
