The District Head of
Allawa in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, his brother and 33
others have been killed by gunmen, who invaded the village on Tuesday night.
Punch learnt that a
Police Inspector in the area was also killed in the attack.
The attackers, who were
said to be armed with sophisticated weapons, were believed to be Fulani
herdsmen while an unconfirmed report suggested that the invaders could be
fleeing Boko Haram members, who might have been dislodged from their hideout in
Sambisa Forest.
It was gathered that
the attackers also set more than 25 houses on fire and injured several other
villagers before fleeing into the bush in an attack said to have lasted about
two hours.
Scores of the villagers
are now displaced as a result of the attack.
Police Public Relations
Officer in the state, Bala Elikana, who confirmed the incident, expressed shock
and sadness over the loss of innocent lives.
Elikana, however, said
the command had not been able to confirm the number of casualty, admitting that
a policeman was among those killed.
He added that the
incident happened at night, explaining that as a result of lack of
communication between Allawa and other parts of the state, distress call could
not reach security agencies on time.
The PPRO stated that
the Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Marafa, had dispatched the
Divisional Police Officer in Kagara and the Police Area Commander in Minna to
the troubled village to assess the situation.
Troops of the Nigerian
Army have been on the ground in the Shiroro Local Government Area, battling the
menace of cow theft, but it could not be explained how the murderers evaded the
soldiers.
-Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment