PM News: Villagers Drop Corpse at Zamfara Government House to Protest Bandits Killings

For a while now, Bandits have been terrorizing villages in Zamfara state and it isn’t getting any better. To protest these killings, over 100 people have gathered round the Zamfara government house with the dead body of one Shafiu Inusa, who was killed while applying fertilizers on his farm.

According to PM News, 100 villagers from Jirrawa community in Kaura-Namoda Local Government Area of Zamfara on Saturday besieged Government House, Gusau with a dead body alleged to have been killed by bandits earlier in the day.

Muntari Abdullahi and Muhammadu Sani, spokespersons of the community said that the bandits invaded the village around 10 am and shot sporadically in the air.

“We later realised that they have already killed Shafiu Inusa on his farm while he was trying to apply fertilizer on his plants after the rains of last night,” Abdullahi said.

According to Abdullahi, the deceased was just recovering from a gunshot wound inflicted on him when the bandits attacked the village four months ago during which Shafiu’s father was murdered.

“It is exactly four months now when Shafiu’s father was killed in a similar attack, because the wives of the old man are completing their four months stay at home as mandated by Islam.

“We gathered from his farm neighbour and brother that initially, one of the bandits appeared before them saying anyone who knows he is guilty should run and who is not should stay.

“Shafiu refused to run and when the others numbering over a hundred arrived, they opened fire and killed him instantly, this is his remains that we brought here for the governor to see and know that this peace initiative is not working for us,” he said.

Buttressing Abdullahi’s point, Sani said: “These criminals have always passed by our village without any threat or harassment until the last few months. So far, they have attacked us more than eight times and have killed many people. Even while on our way to Gusau today, we received phone call that they also killed one Bala Danrabi, a vigilante leader who has always fought the bandits”.

Confirming the incident, the state Commissioner of Police, Usman Nagogo noted that such occurrences are not expected during conflict resolution and assured the community that the perpetrators of this latest attack will be fished out. He however noted that there would not be any firepower against the bandits for now because of the ongoing peace initiative.

“I can confidently assure you that the peace initiative by Gov. Bello Matawalle which I lead in the state is working as can be seen in the release of kidnap victims and the repentance of several bandits, but that does not mean that the hardened criminals are no longer there, they are the ones that will perpetuate this now.

“I am in constant contact with bandits groups in all the bushes and our discussions have been positive leading to the peace we are now enjoying.

“On this Jirrawa issue, I have spoken with my contacts around the area and the repentant bandits promised to meet tomorrow and fish out the perpetrators of this latest attack and hand the culprits over to me; this is in the spirit of the partnership we are now enjoying,” he said.