Bandits Launch Deadly Reprisal Attack on Tafoki Village in Katsina State
By The Bureau Staff
Faskari, Katsina State – April 10, 2025 — In a chilling act of vengeance, suspected bandits have launched a deadly reprisal attack on Tafoki village in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State, leaving multiple corpses at the community’s entrance in what appears to be a grim warning.
Eyewitnesses said the assailants, mostly young men believed to be in their 20s, invaded the village on Tuesday, April 9, and strategically placed the bodies of their victims at the gateway leading into Tafoki. The gruesome display has plunged the entire community into mourning and fear.
According to local sources, the attack is believed to be retaliation for the killing of three bandits — including a feared gang leader known simply as Goje — during an earlier failed invasion in February. That incident saw brave villagers repel the attackers, a rare win that now seems to have provoked a brutal backlash.
“This is not the first time we’re being attacked, but this one is different,” a local resident told The Bureau. “They are now killing our people and dropping their bodies at the entrance of our village — it’s psychological warfare.”
The attackers reportedly abducted several villagers during the recent onslaught. Victims were said to have been executed with gunshots to the head, their hands tied behind their backs, before their remains were returned and dumped at the edge of the community.
Locals are reeling from the trauma, struggling to recover decomposing bodies of relatives under increasingly dire emotional and psychological conditions.
Despite repeated assurances by authorities of progress in the fight against terrorism and banditry in Nigeria’s North-West, rural communities like Tafoki continue to suffer relentless attacks, with deaths, abductions, and the destruction of property becoming part of daily life.
“These killings have become so frequent that we’ve lost count. The government says the terrorists are being neutralised, but what we see here is the opposite,” another resident lamented.
Security agencies are yet to issue an official statement regarding the latest incident, but local leaders are calling for urgent intervention to prevent further escalation and protect lives.
As Katsina State and surrounding regions remain flashpoints in Nigeria’s wider insecurity crisis, the people of Tafoki are left to confront the stark reality of a cycle of violence that shows no sign of abating.
