Bandits have rustled 73 cows belonging to the chief imam of Gidan-Makeri, Malam Ibrahim Zubairu, in Kagarko Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

A resident of the neighbouring Kuchimi village in the area, Shuaibu Ahmadu, said the incident happened on Tuesday around 5:33pm when the bandits, wielding sophisticated weapons and in their numbers, invaded the area.

He said the bandits went straight to where the cows were kept, some few distance away from the community to move them away.

He said they were shooting sporadically to scare the villagers from coming after them while leading the cows out of the community.

He said the imam had travelled to Kagarko when the bandits struck, even as he said some vigilantes from the neighbouring Kuchimi village, after receiving the information, mobilised and went after the bandits.

"The imam was at Kagarko. But as God would have it, the cows were later retrieved by some vigilantes from neighbouring Kuchimi village, who went after the bandits," he said.

City & Crime also gathered that the rustled cows were unable to cross River Gurara, a situation that forced the bandits to flee and abandon them before the arrival of the vigilantes.

The spokesman of the Kaduna State police command, ASP Hassan Mansur, was yet to confirm the incident as at the time of filing the report.