More than 60 persons have been kidnapped in a midnight attack by bandits in Bakura Local government area of Zamfara state.

On Friday, eyewitnesses told reporters that armed men stormed the town around 2:30 a.m. and began shooting sporadically.

Despite residents’ refusal to come out of their homes in view of the  heavy gunfire filling the air, the bandits kidnapped a large number of villagers.

The event was confirmed by the Zamfara State police, albeit  not providing the exact number of residents kidnapped by the gunmen.

However, Mohammed Shehu, a spokesman for the command, said the police had sent many tactical operators in the town in the hopes of retrieving the abducted people.

Several requests to the government for extra security reinforcement for the residents of Rini, according to a source, have been made.

Rini’s attack came just a week after bandits attacked Bakura LGA’s College of Agriculture and Animal Science.

The gunmen killed a police officer and two watchmen before breaking into the school during the attack, which took place around 11 p.m. on Sunday.

Later, state police confirmed that 15 students and four staff members of the institution had been kidnapped by the perpetrators.

The state governor, Bello Matawalle, condemned the tragedy and assured the victims’ relatives that they would return safely.

The bandits allegedly contacted the school administration and demanded N350 million in ransom for the victims’ release.

The criminals eventually published a video in which the students begged the authorities to heed their kidnappers’ demand for money, threatening to kill them if it was not met.