18 KILLED IN ZAMFARA BANDITS ATTACK

The residents said the attack was the deadliest in recent months, just as  a source at Gummi General Hospital said on Monday that he counted 20 corpses at the hospital’s mortuary, adding that more corpses  were found in other parts of the community and its environs where the attack occurred,

Penpushing further reports that, the Special Assistant on Security Matter to Governor Bello Matawalle, Abubakar Dauran, said the attack was a reprisal by suspected Fulani whose relatives were earlier killed in the earlier attack on a market at Bardoki ward in Gummi two weeks ago.

The Special Assistant said a report available to him showed that 10 people were killed in the attack, and blamed the attack on community volunteers (‘Yansakai) who he said had earlier killed scores of Fulani people in the market attack.

Penpushing also reports that, Dauran stated that seven community volunteers (‘Yansakai) were arrested over the earlier attack, adding that many elderly persons were also killed at the time, explaining that, “the volunteers have been banned in the State, but they are still carrying on with their activities, sabotaging the peace efforts of the government. The peace process is on course.”

The Special Adviser on Security Matters said the government is on top of the situation and urged residents not be discouraged by the attacks.

Penpushing reports that, the Spokesperson of the Army’s Operation Hadarin Daji, Oni Orisan, could not be reach as at the time of filing this report, while it is also on record that Zamfara has in recent years witnessed several killings linked to bandits.