NIDCOM condemns killing of 16 Nigerian travellers in Burkina Faso

The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, yesterday, described the killing of 16 Nigerian travellers in Burkina Faso as unjustifiable, callous and criminal.

In a statement by the Head of Media and Public Relations, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, the NIDCOM chair, called on the Burkinabe authorities to fish out the perpetrators and prosecute them accordingly.

Dabiri-Erewa who reiterated President Muhammad Buhari’s resolve to ensure appropriate sanction” through diplomacy to those who were involved in the wicked killing, said it was a condemnable and barbaric act.

She condoled with families and friends of the deceased and prayed for the safety of other stranded Nigerians in the country.
“To those who were unjustifiably killed, especially as they were on spiritual pilgrimage, may Allah accept them into His martyrdom and quicken the pace of recovery of those injured survivors,” she said.

Burkinabe soldiers on patrol recently reportedly killed Muslim pilgrims, including 16 Nigerians.

At a news conference on Sunday in Abuja, the Jam’iyyatu Ansaridden Attijaniyya of Nigeria revealed that the Burkinabe soldiers on patrol shot 16 of its members. They were reportedly on their way to the home country of their leader, Sheikhul-Islam Ibrahim Niasse, in Senegal, when they met their untimely death.

The national secretary of the Islamic group, Sayyidi Yahaya, said the Ansarudden members were “randomly selected and shot to death in a most horrendous display of bestiality.”