Admin I Sunday, Sept 13, 2026
MINNA — Terror struck Maburya, a quiet agrarian community in the Mariga Local Government Area of Niger State, overnight as heavily armed bandits invaded the area, hunting down and abduct over 100 residents in a late-night raid.
According to local sources, the heavily armed attackers descended on the village under the cover of darkness, triggering widespread panic.
Frightened residents attempted to escape into the surrounding terrain, hiding along riverbanks, dense bush paths, and nearby hills. However, the gunmen systematically combed the area, tracking down hiding villagers and dragging them away into the forest.
Eyewitnesses reported that after rounding up their initial victims, the bandits continued patrolling the community and its outskirts for hours, searching for more residents to kidnap.
While community leaders estimate that over 100 people were taken during the raid, local authorities and security agencies are yet to release an official figure as headcounts continue across affected families.
The Maburya raid marks the latest wave of coordinated assaults targeting farming communities in the Mariga enclave.
Over recent months, neighboring villages including Gulbin Boka, Mohoro, and Shadadi have suffered repeated incursions, resulting in mass abductions, fatalities, and forced displacement.
Mariga LGA, which borders expansive forest reserves stretching toward Kaduna and Zamfara states, has increasingly become a stronghold for organized criminal gangs.
These armed groups leverage the rugged topography—dense forests and rocky hills—to evade military patrols and launch hit-and-run attacks on defenseless rural communities.
The continuous violence has severely disrupted socio-economic activities across the region, leaving agrarian hubs deserted as thousands of internal displaced persons (IDPs) flee toward local government headquarters and major urban centers like Kontagora and Minna.
Growing Outcry for Federal Intervention
The attack on Maburya comes amid heightened security concerns across North-Central Nigeria, where mass kidnappings for ransom have severely strained rural economies and created widespread public frustration.
Community representatives and civil society organizations have intensified calls on both the Federal Government and the Niger State Government to deploy permanent military forward operating bases (FOBs) in the Mariga axis.
Residents maintain that reactive security deployments following attacks have proven insufficient against well-armed criminal cartels operating within the forest corridors.
As panic spreads across neighboring farming settlements, affected families continue to await updates from security forces regarding search and rescue operations for the victims.
