•Bello talks tough over death of 15 Fulani in Kogi
Katsina State was yesterday again thrown into a mourning mood, as 34 people were killed in multiple attacks on Batsari, Faskari and Danmusa council areas by bandits.
At Yar Gamji village in Batsari, 18 people lost their lives, 11 slain at Sabon Layin Galadima community in Faskari while five others got killed at Mara Zamfarawa settlement of Danmusa local council.A bulk of the casualties were said to be in their farmlands when the attackers struck, as sources indicated that more bodies had been discovered yesterday night.
It was also learnt that cattle belonging to some of the victims were rustled by the hoodlums, even as some of the affected villages had been deserted by inhabitants for fear of fresh onslaught.In Batsari for instance, 10 others persons were reported missing at press time.
However, hundreds of residents in the council area have protested the killings, resorting to burning of vehicular tyres, shrubs and related items.Reliving the ordeal, a relation to one of the victims, Abdullahi Rabiu, stated many of them were at their farmlands when the attacks occurred.
His words: “We watched first rainfall yesterday (Monday), and we decided to go and make preparation for the farming season. We had hardly settled into our work when we began to hear shootings.
“The bandits came in their numbers and attacked us from 7am till 11am, and they killed18 people, with 10 yet to be accounted for.”The youths consequently ferried the corpses to the Emir of Katisna, Alhaji Abdulmumini Kabir Usman, and Governor Aminu Bello Masari. The governor assured the citizenry that government would tackle banditry frontally.
But the spokesman for the state police command, SP Gambo Isah, had earlier confirmed death of one person in a shoot-off.Meanwhile, Governor Yahaya Bello has given the administrators and traditional rulers of Yagba West Omala, Dekina and Igalamela councils of Kogi State seven days to provide the killers of 15 Fulani in their areas.
During a security stakeholders’ meeting at Government House Lokoja, he deplored the killings, warning that his administration would not tolerate such unwholesome act. The governor vowed to apprehend and bring to book the perpetrators of the dastardly act, adding that government would not allow the insecurity in neighbouring Benue, Nasarawa and Zamfara states manifest in Kogi.
