A 40-year-old businessman identified as Tasiu Tilde has been killed by gunmen while attempting to abduct him in Tilden Fulani, about 100 kilometres from Bauchi.

The deceased, popularly called Mai Kemis, was in his pharmacy when gunmen whose number is yet to be ascertained, attacked him on Tuesday evening.

An eyewitness who refused to be named said that the gunmen invaded the area and shot endlessly to scare people away.

“It was in the process that the late Tasiu was shot and killed while the gunmen ran away having missed their target of kidnap,” he said.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Bauchi State Police Command, Ahmed Wakil, confirmed the incident in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

Wakil, a Superintendent of Police, said that the incident happened in the evening of Tuesday when the gunmen, whose mission was to kidnap, stormed the village shooting indiscriminately to scare people away.

He said: “Some yet-to-be-identified gunmen stormed Tilden Fulani in Toro LGA on Tuesday. Their main mission was to kidnap their target, one Tasiu Abdulkareem Tilde, who was operating his business in the area.”

According to him, they tried to take their victim away but he resisted and in the process, they shot him in the chest several times as the gunmen escaped from the scene of the incident.

“A good Samaritan put a distress call through to our patrol team in the area, they immediately mobilised to the scene of the incident, but before they got there, the suspected kidnappers had fled, leaving their victim in pool of his blood.

“The patrol team immediately evacuated him to the nearest Toro General Hospital where, on arrival, a medical doctor on duty certified him dead.

“Investigation is ongoing to apprehend the suspects,” he said.

Similarly, another attempt by gunmen was made in another area, Tudun Danbiram, in the same Tilden Fulani village, at about 1am when they forced themselves into the compound of a resident trying to gain entrance into the main room.

He said that a good Samaritan made a distress call to the Police and some personnel with members of the multi-security Taskforce were immediately drafted to the area.

He added that they engaged the bandits in a gun duel during which some of them were wounded but managed to escape.

The Police spokesman called on people in the area to continue to cooperate with the Police and other security agencies in order to secure the area and apprehend the criminals operating there.

He further appealed to the people to immediately report to the nearest Police station or any point of the multi-security task force operating in the area any person with gunshot wounds for immediate action.

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