{"id":10855,"date":"2026-03-22T22:12:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/?p=10855"},"modified":"2026-03-22T22:12:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:12:48","slug":"over-150-bandits-drown-in-sokoto-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/2026\/03\/22\/over-150-bandits-drown-in-sokoto-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 150 bandits drown in Sokoto river"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At least 150 suspected bandits have reportedly drowned after a boat conveying them capsized in the Sabon Gida area of Sokoto State.<\/p>\n<p>A counter-insurgency and security expert in the Lake Chad region, Zagazola Makama, made this known in a post via X.<\/p>\n<p>He stated that the incident occurred on Saturday evening when the vessel carrying a large number of armed men overturned while crossing a water body in the area.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10856\" src=\"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/656221625_958508836643033_1599330983235126509_n-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/656221625_958508836643033_1599330983235126509_n-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/656221625_958508836643033_1599330983235126509_n.jpg 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>According to him, the bandits were travelling in large numbers when the boat suddenly capsized, throwing all occupants into the water.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPreliminary information suggests that many of them could not swim, leading to heavy casualties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that initial reports indicated that none of the occupants survived the incident.<\/p>\n<p>There has been no official confirmation from security agencies as of the time of filing this report.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Police in Sokoto State have dismissed a report trending in social media alleging that a boat carrying about 150 armed bandits capsized in the Sabon Gida community in the eastern axis of Sokoto.<\/p>\n<p>Denying the report, the Public Relations Officer of the State Police Command, DSP Ahmed Rufa\u2019i, said the report was completely false, adding, \u201cNo iota of truth, it only existed in the imagination of fabricators.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He explained that rivers across Sokoto State, particularly in the eastern part of the state, were largely not navigable during the dry season.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe report about bandits capsizing in a boat in Sokoto East is false. Rivers in that axis are not navigable at this period; they only become so during the rainy season,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Ahmed cautioned against the spread of unverified security information, warning that misinformation could cause unnecessary panic and undermine ongoing security efforts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"google-auto-placed ap_container\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div data-ad-curtain=\"placeholder\">\n<div data-ad-curtain=\"container\">\n<div data-ad-curtain=\"curtain\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"aswift_2_host\" data-ad-curtain=\"hidden-ad\">\n<div class=\"google-aiuf\" data-google-ad-efd=\"true\">\n<div class=\"goog-rentries\">\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Police command advised the residents to rely on verified information from official security agencies and credible media platforms for updates on security developments in Sokoto State<br \/>\n.<br \/>\nAlso commenting on the issue, a security analyst and a resident from the area, Bashir Altine Guyawa, said the report was implausible, noting that there is no river in the eastern axis of Sokoto State capable of supporting boat or canoe transportation, especially during the dry season.<\/p>\n<p>An online analyst accused the Sokoto Public Relations Officer of being a terrorist sympathiser<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least 150 suspected bandits have reportedly drowned after a boat conveying them capsized in the Sabon Gida area of Sokoto State. A counter-insurgency and security expert in the Lake Chad region, Zagazola Makama,&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10855"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10858,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10855\/revisions\/10858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}